Patent ID: 8090806

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, at a network device, a first request for a change in configuration of a network device to a potential operational state from a current operational state of the network device, wherein the first request comprises configuration data that describes the change in configuration of the network device; storing the configuration data from the first request in a buffer, wherein the change in configuration described by the configuration data includes two or more configuration changes; after the storing, receiving, at the network device, a second request to modify the current operational state of the network device to reflect the configuration data stored in the buffer, wherein the second request specifies that the current operational state of the network device should be modified to reflect any of the two or more configuration changes that can be performed even when at least one of the two or more configuration changes cannot be performed; obtaining an exclusive lock on the network device; modifying the current operational state of the network device to reflect the configuration data only upon obtaining the exclusive lock by: determining that the second request does not require at least one of the two or more configuration changes to be performed; and in response to determining that the second request does not require at least one of the two or more configuration changes described by the configuration data to be performed: modifying the current operational state of the network device to reflect one or more configuration changes that can be performed, wherein one or more other configuration changes are not capable of being performed and are not performed, wherein the two or more configuration changes comprise one or more configuration changes that can be performed and the one or more other configuration changes that are not capable of being performed; in response to a determination that a third request requires that each of a set of two or more configuration changes be performed: determining if each configuration change of the set of two or more configuration changes is capable of being performed, and modifying the current operational state of the network device to reflect the configuration data only if each configuration change of the set of two or more configuration changes is capable of being performed.