Patent ID: 7752287

Claim:
A method for automatically generating best practices for configuring a networked system of entities, the method comprising: identifying a networked system configuration problem; determining a set of problematic entities, wherein the set of problematic entities includes the entities reporting the networked system configuration problem; determining a set of problem associated entities, wherein the set of problem associated entities includes the entities with a common association having a strongest correlation to the set of problematic entities, by a best practices computer performing: identifying one or more associations for each entity, the one or more associations defining links between the entities; generating a list of association instances from the identified one or more associations; creating lists of entities, wherein each list of entities is created on a per association instance basis; applying a metric to each list of entities with respect to the set of problematic entities, wherein the metric includes at least one of a precision metric and a recall metric representing a ratio of an intersection of each list of entities with respect to the set of problematic entities; and selecting the association instance for the list of entities with a top ranking metric as the common association haying the strongest correlation to the set of problematic entities; classifying the set of problem associated entities on an attribute basis to determine one or more attributes of the entities that contribute to the networked system configuration problem; and reporting the best practices for configuring the networked system of entities as avoiding the one or more attributes of the entities that contribute to the networked system configuration problem.