Patent ID: 7401137

Claim:
In a management application, a method for applying a management action to a resource, the method comprising: receiving a selection of a resource representation in a network environment that represents a resource to which a management action is to be applied; applying a series of resource traversal functions to a repository containing objects representative of network resources in the network environment, the traversal functions identifying a set of action affected resources in the network environment existing along a set of relationship paths extending to at least one storage device that have a current allocation relationship to the selected resource, by: applying a going down function to the repository containing objects representative of resources to identify a set of downward resources in the network environment that have a downward allocation relationship to the selected resource, the downward allocation relationship indicating resources that the selected resource depends upon and that are in operational use during access to data by the selected resource on a downward allocation path beginning at the selected resource and extending downward through the network environment and terminating at physical storage devices that store the data accessed by the selected resource, by: identifying existence of a set of replicated resources in the set of downward resources, the set of replicated resources including a replicated instance of a detected replicated resource and any resources operationally related to the replicated instance of the detected replicated resource; and presenting a representation of the set of action affected resources in the network environment to a user of the management application, the representation of the set of action affected resources informing the user of resources within the storage area network that are currently in an functional relationship with the selected resource to which a management action is to be applied and that may be affected if the management action is to be applied to the selected resource.