Patent ID: 7577724

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: maintaining a set of rules for purposes of validating a storage area network configuration, wherein the maintaining is performed by a computer processor that executes software instructions retrieved from computer storage; displaying a hierarchical tree of storage area network resources present in the storage area network configuration; displaying a visual indication for a respective storage area network resource in the hierarchical tree, the visual indication indicating that a rule violation occurred for the respective storage area network resource based on application of the set of rules, the visual indication indicating that at least one advisory message was generated for the respective storage area network resource based on a previous application of the set of rules to the storage area network configuration, the at least one advisory message indicating the rule violation associated with at least one rule from the set of rules; and displaying the at least one rule from the set of rules, display of the at least one rule indicating that the rule violation occurred for the at least one rule; wherein displaying the at least one rule occurs in response to a user providing input with respect to the respective storage area network resource in the hierarchical tree to view the at least one advisory message; receiving selection of the displayed at least one rule; for the at least one rule and subsequent to receiving the selection, receiving a user-defined condition pertaining to generation of respective rule message information associated with the at least one rule in the set of rules; and applying the user-defined condition to prevent a subsequent generation of the respective rule message information associated with the at least one rule.