Patent ID: 7669139

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: (a) a memory; and (b) a program resident in the memory and configured to display a pictorial representation on a computer display, the pictorial representation associated with a plurality of hardware components and representing a physical configuration of each of the plurality of hardware components that conveys a relative placement and location of at least a subset of the hardware components in physical space, wherein each of the plurality of hardware components is associated with at least one attribute, the program further configured to indicate, in response to user input, a selected status for multiple hardware components from the plurality of hardware components within the pictorial representation associated with the plurality of hardware components; to dynamically retrieve a list of available management operations associated with at least two selected hardware components among the multiple hardware components having a selected status after indicating the selected status for the multiple hardware components; to display the list of available management operations within a context sensitive menu after indicating the selected status for the multiple hardware components; and to perform a management operation from among the list of available management operations on all of the multiple hardware components that have a selected status responsive to user input directed to the context sensitive menu, wherein the program is configured to indicate the selected status by selecting a filter criterion from a plurality of predetermined filter criteria, comparing attributes associated with the plurality of hardware components against the selected filter criterion, and selecting those hardware components associated with attributes that match the selected filter criterion, wherein the pictorial representation continues to depict at least one non-selected hardware component after such selection, wherein each of the plurality of predetermined filter criteria is associated with a predetermined view among a plurality of views, and wherein the list of available management operations includes only management operations that are appropriate for being performed on all of the multiple hardware components having a selected status.