Patent ID: 8812635

Claim:
A method comprising the machine-implemented steps of: creating and storing a logical tree representation of a network, wherein the network comprises one or more network devices each having one or more characteristics, wherein a root node of the tree represents the entire network, wherein leaf nodes of the tree represent the network devices, wherein one or more intermediate nodes of the tree represent one or more groups of network devices having common characteristics; receiving a first command that selects any of the entire network or the devices; wherein each device of a set of network devices selected by the first command is associated with one or more commands at a plurality of levels, wherein a first level command is included in a native device interface for said each device, and a second level command is not natively supported on said each device; in response to receiving the first command, building a command base comprised of first level commands and second level commands, wherein building said command base further comprises: determining a set of first level commands, wherein each first level command of the set of first level commands is associated with all devices of said set of network devices; determining a set of second level commands, wherein each second level command of the set of second level commands is associated with all devices of said set of network devices; receiving one second command that specifies a single management operation for application to each network device in said set of network devices; determining a third command for performing the single management operation based on the second command and the command base; wherein the third command is selected from the set of first level commands in the command base; automatically executing said third command to perform the specified management operation only on each network device in said set of network devices; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.