Patent ID: 7870564

Claim:
A method in a computer system having a memory and a processor for managing elements in an information technology environment, the method comprising: with the computer system, retrieving a first managed object (MO) definition from a plurality of MO definitions, each MO definition representing a managed element on the computer system and being associated with an action, wherein the action associated with the first MO definition is different from the action associated with a second MO definition; in response to retrieving the first MO definition, upon determining that results of performing the action associated with the first MO definition are in a cache, upon determining that the results of performing the action associated with the first MO definition in the cache are stale, purging from the cache the stale results of performing the action associated with the first MO definition, invoking an appropriate MO handler to perform the action associated with the first MO definition, storing the results of performing the action associated with the first MO definition in the cache, and using the results of performing the action associated with the first MO definition, and upon determining that the results of performing the action associated with the first MO definition in the cache are not stale, using the results from the cache; upon determining that results of performing the action associated with the first MO definition are not in the cache, invoking an appropriate MO handler to perform the action associated with the first MO definition, and storing the results of performing the action associated with the first MO definition in the cache; periodically upon determining that the results of performing the action associated with the first MO definition in the cache are stale, purging the stale results from the cache; retrieving the second MO definition; and in response to retrieving the second MO definition, upon determining that results of performing the action associated with the second MO definition are in the cache, upon determining that the results of performing the action associated with the second MO definition in the cache are stale, purging from the cache the stale results of performing the action associated with the second MO definition, invoking an appropriate MO handler to perform the action associated with the second MO definition, storing the results of performing the action associated with the second MO definition in the cache, and using the results of performing the action associated with the second MO definition, and upon determining that the results of performing the action associated with the second MO definition in the cache are not stale, using the results from the cache.