Patent ID: 8825833

Claim:
A method for tracking computer system configuration changes with corresponding message responses, comprising: at a change tracking computer system: monitoring a plurality of computer systems for configuration changes; detecting initiation of a configuration change for a computer system of the monitored plurality of computer systems; issuing a message selected from a database comprising a library of configuration change messages for the plurality of computer systems based upon the configuration change in response to detecting the initiation of the configuration change, wherein the selected message warns of a potential error condition due to the configuration change being issued from the computer system and requires a response, wherein the response requires choosing to accept the message or ignore the message, wherein accepting the message cancels the configuration change and ignoring the message allows the configuration change; observing the response to the selected message; storing the configuration change with the selected message and the response in a log file within the database; detecting that an error condition with the computer system has occurred; querying the database in response to detecting the error condition to determine configuration changes identified within the database as possible causes of the detected error condition; and determining whether the configuration change is one of the determined configuration changes identified within the database as possible causes of the detected error condition.