Patent ID: 8237961

Claim:
A management apparatus for managing a plurality of actual devices and virtual devices, each virtual device providing an operation constructed by combining functions of the plurality of actual devices, comprising: a detection unit adapted to detect a change of an optional function of an actual device; a change unit adapted to change, in correspondence with the change of the optional function detected by said detection unit, an attribute of a first virtual device including an actual device of which the optional function has been changed; a determination unit adapted to determine a second virtual device which has the same attribute as the attribute of the first virtual device that has been changed by said change unit; a reconfiguration unit adapted to, in the case that said determination unit determines a second virtual device having the same attribute, change the configuration of the second virtual device so as to use the actual device of which the change of the optional function has been detected by said detection unit; a comparison unit adapted to compare respective actual devices constituting the virtual devices after said reconfiguration unit changes the configuration of the second virtual device; and a management unit adapted to manage virtual devices found in the comparison by the comparison unit to have the same actual devices by regarding such virtual devices as one virtual device.