Patent ID: 8001475

Claim:
An apparatus for creating a network topograph that includes all selected objects that are in a network, the apparatus comprising: one or more processors; and one or more stored sequences of instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out steps of: establishing a plurality of network objects in the network to be the selected objects, wherein the selected objects are key firewall objects selected from a plurality of firewall objects based on one or more user-specified criteria, wherein the selected objects completely surround one or more non-selected objects; in response to the establishing, determining a first set of one or more of the non-selected objects in the network that partition the network into one or more perimeters, wherein a perimeter in the one or more perimeters is a set of one or more non-selected objects and is completely surrounded by one or more of the selected objects, and wherein a particular first perimeter in the one or more perimeters is the first set of one or more non-selected objects; in response to the determining, creating a network topograph that represents individually only each selected object in the network, and in which all the non-selected objects of the first set are represented collectively as a single non-selected object; displaying the network topograph in a graphical user interface of a network management application in which only each particular selected object is displayed individually as a single object and all non-selected objects that the particular selected object completely surrounds are displayed collectively as a single object; receiving input from a user, wherein the input specifies a first non-selected object in the network topograph; and displaying information about the first non-selected object, wherein the information was not displayed prior to the input being received.