Patent ID: 8893106

Claim:
A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium comprising a plurality of instructions to be executed in a computer-implemented method, said storage medium comprising: a plurality of first instructions to check a plurality of predetermined conditions, to identify a set of issues to arise in applying at least one predetermined patch to at least one predetermined software previously installed in each target computer in a plurality of target computers; wherein the plurality of first instructions use metadata comprising configuration metadata from said each target computer in said plurality of target computers and patch metadata from a source of said at least one predetermined patch; wherein a group of first predetermined conditions in said plurality of predetermined conditions use said configuration metadata but not said patch metadata, to check if resources needed for patching are available in said each target computer, said group of first predetermined conditions comprising a first predetermined condition to check whether administrator privilege is granted in said each target computer; wherein a group of second predetermined conditions in said plurality of predetermined conditions use said patch metadata but not said configuration metadata, to check if said at least one predetermined patch is currently supported, said group of second predetermined conditions comprising a second predetermined condition to check whether said at least one predetermined patch is a latest version; wherein a group of third predetermined conditions in said plurality of predetermined conditions use said configuration metadata and said patch metadata in combination, to check whether said at least one predetermined patch is applicable to said each target computer, said group of third predetermined conditions comprising a third predetermined condition to check whether disk space required for patching is less than disk space available in said each target computer; a plurality of second instructions to select at least one predetermined operation to be performed to correct at least one predetermined issue in said set of issues identified by execution of said plurality of first instructions; and a plurality of third instructions to be executed prior to application of said at least one predetermined patch to said at least one predetermined software, to store in a memory, a first plurality of results of execution of said plurality of first instructions and a second plurality of results of execution of said plurality of second instructions.