Patent ID: 8181173

Claim:
A method for installing a patch for a program that is included in servers, the method comprising the steps of: a computer identifying a plurality of the servers, wherein each one of the plurality of the servers requires an installation of the patch; the computer assigning two or more priority values to each one of the plurality of the servers, wherein each one of the two or more priority values is associated with a different one of a plurality of criterion; the computer assigning an importance level to each one of the plurality of criterion relative to other ones of the plurality of criterion, wherein the importance level is assigned according to a patch priority policy of a business; the computer, for a most important one of the plurality of criterion, sorting the plurality of the servers using one of the two or more priority values that is assigned to each one of the plurality of the servers and that is associated with the most one important one of the plurality of criterion to provide a first sort order; the computer determining a time when each one of the plurality of the servers last used the program; the computer receiving a time parameter, wherein the time parameter specifies a length of time; the computer, for each one of the plurality of the servers, determining whether each one of the plurality of the servers last used the program during the length of time; the computer revising the first sort order using a determination of whether each one of the plurality of the servers last used the program during the length of time to provide a second sort order, wherein the second sort order corresponds to a second most important one of the plurality of criterion; and the computer installing the patch on the plurality of the servers in the second sort order.