Patent ID: 7321893

Claim:
In a computer system comprising a plurality of resources, an automatic availability manager (AAM) for monitoring at least some of the plurality of resources, and an agent to configure resource groups, each resource group specifying a group of resources to be monitored by the AAM, a method comprising: (A) in response to a request from a requester, received by the agent, to configure at least a portion of a resource group, the request specifying at least one parameter of the at least a portion of the resource group, the at least one parameter identifying at least one service and/or at least one application to be included in the resource group, determining at least one characteristic of the at least one service and/or the at least one application that satisfies the at least one parameter; and (B) presenting to the requestor the at least one characteristic determined in (A) to satisfy the at least one parameter, wherein the at least one characteristic is selected from a group consisting of: a location in the computer system of the at least one service and/or the at least one application; a device on which the at least one service and/or the at least one application executes; at least one database associated with the at least one service and/or the at least one application; at least one service or process associated with the at least one service and/or the at least one application; a location in the computer system of at least one service or process associated with the at least one service and/or the at least one application; at least one storage device available to the at least one service and/or the at least one application; at least one file system available to the at least one service and/or the at least one application; at least one storage volume available to the at least one service and/or the at least one application; a configuration of the at least one service and/or the at least one application; and a network interface employed by the at least one service and/or the at least one application.