Patent ID: 7860959

Claim:
A method for configuring an intermediate node contained in a data network, the method comprising the steps of: defining a plurality of objects representing entities within the intermediate node; arranging, by a processor, the objects in a multi-level hierarchical object tree; saving a plurality of versions of state of at least some of the objects in a memory, the versions of state for each of these objects organized into a respective multi-level hierarchical version control tree, each multi-level hierarchical version control tree associated with a respective one of the objects in the multi-level hierarchical object tree; associating selected ones of the plurality of versions of state, that are each located in different multi-level hierarchical version control trees associated with different objects in the multi-level hierarchical object tree, with a first label to establish a first configuration of the intermediate node, the first label indicating a name of the first configuration; and configuring entities within the intermediate node according to the first configuration by accessing the selected ones of the plurality of versions of state of different objects, in the different multi-level hierarchical version control trees associated with the different objects, that are each associated with the first label.