Patent ID: 7877477

Claim:
A system, comprising: a first managed system executing in a network, wherein the first managed system comprises a first hardware component and a first software component; a second managed system executing in the network, wherein the second managed system comprises a second hardware component and a second software component; and a proxy management object (PMO) executing in the network, wherein the PMO is configured to: classify the first managed system associated with a first active Internet Protocol (IP) address in the network using a plurality of network protocols to obtain a first classification, identify a first set of drivers using the first classification, wherein the first set of drivers is configured to obtain first management information about the first managed system, obtain the first set of drivers, populate a data model with the first management information obtained using at least one of the first set of drivers, and manage the first managed system using the data model, classify the second managed system associated with a second active IP address in the network to obtain a second classification, by: sending a multicast protocol message to a plurality of IP addresses in the network, wherein the second active IP address is one of the plurality of IP addresses, receiving a response to the multicast protocol message from the second active IP address, wherein the response comprises an identification (ID) and type of the second managed system, and setting the classification of the second managed system using the ID and type; identify a second set of drivers using the second classification, wherein the second set of drivers is configured to obtain second management information about the second managed system; obtain the second set of drivers; populate the data model with the second management information obtain using at least one of the second set of drivers; and manage the second managed system using the data model, wherein the PMO is configured to classify the first managed system and the second managed system in parallel.