Patent ID: 8015270

Claim:
A method of maintaining configuration files for a plurality of resources on a network, the method comprising: writing to a first storage resource coupled to a first network resource of a plurality of network resources and storing a first instance of a single electronic file in a standard hierarchical format a configuration of the first network resource to a first portion of the first instance, wherein the first portion is modifiable by the first network resource and none other of the plurality of network resources; writing to a second storage resource coupled to a second network resource of the plurality of network resources and storing a second instance of the single electronic file in the standard hierarchical format a configuration of the second network resource to a second portion of the second instance, wherein the second portion is modifiable by the second network resource and none other of the plurality of network resources; synchronizing the first instance and the second instance such that the configuration of the first network resource and the configuration of the second network resource are in both the first instance and the second instance of the single electronic file; modifying, after the synchronizing, at least one of the first portion of the first instance of the single electronic file by the first network resource and the second portion of the second instance of the single electronic file by the second network resource; and repeating the synchronizing after the modifying.