Patent ID: 8346743

Claim:
A computer implemented method of adjusting a monitoring system, said monitoring system comprising a plurality of data collection nodes, each of said plurality of data collection nodes having one or more instances of at least one of a plurality of templates for configuring data collection at each of said plurality of data collection nodes, the method comprising: receiving a data propagation path specifying a hierarchy for at least a portion of said plurality of templates, said hierarchy specifying at least a first child template, one or more parent templates for said first child template, and an order for said parent templates; specifying at least one event data collection rule for said first child template which defines a child data collection process for collecting first event data associated with a first event; configuring at least one first parent data collection rule for each of said parent templates which defines a parent data collection process, said parent data collection rule comprising at least one of a data retrieval rule for retrieving said first event data and a data aggregation rule for combining said first event data collected by at least two of said first child template; changing said child data collection process; automatically evaluating said first parent data collection rules to determine if one or more of said parent data collection processes implemented by said parent templates need to be updated to reflect a change of said child data collection process; and automatically updating at least one process of said parent data collection processes based at least on said change of said child data collection process if it is determined that said process needs to be updated, wherein said process is updated by modifying said first parent data collection rule of at least one of said parent templates.