Patent ID: 8615606

Claim:
A method for use in a distributed computing environment, the method comprising: generating, at a first computing device, a graphical user interface depicting a hierarchical tree structure comprising a set of nodes, each node representative of at least one service, the set of nodes interconnected to represent a set of dependency relationships, the graphical user interface further depicting a set of user-selectable input commands that, when selected, cause the hierarchical tree structure to be revised automatically in accordance with a user selection, the graphical user interface employing different visual representations to depict different types of operations capable of being performed to manipulate operational states of services represented in the hierarchical tree structure; obtaining, using the graphical user interface generated at the first computing device, a dependency relationship specified between a first service and a second service, the first service and the second service implementing at least portions of the distributed computing environment, at least one of the first service and the second service operating on a second computing device different from the first computing device, the dependency relationship maintained in the hierarchical tree structure; and conditioning invocation of a first operation to manipulate an operational state of the first service, the invocation of the first operation being conditioned on the dependency relationship specified between the first service and the second service, the invocation of the first operation also being conditioned to occur during a scheduled time interval specified at the first computing device.