Patent ID: 8060891

Claim:
A method of managing external hardware appliances from a distributed operating system interface in a computer network, comprising: receiving a request in the distributed operating system interface to manage an external hardware appliance in the computer network; receiving a selection of a driver model associated with the external hardware appliance in the distributed operating system interface; automatically determining tasks for the external hardware appliance to fulfill the request to manage the external hardware appliance, the request comprising a configuration operation associated with an internal hardware appliance in the computer network, the tasks comprising configuring settings for the external hardware appliance to facilitate the configuration operation associated with the internal hardware appliance; and utilizing the selected driver model to configure the settings for the external hardware appliance from the distributed operating system interface, wherein utilizing the selected driver model to configure the settings for the external hardware appliance comprises: communicating the settings to at least one device driver for the external hardware appliance; and instructing the at least one device driver to adjust the settings to facilitate the configuration operation associated with the internal hardware appliance; wherein receiving a request in the distributed operating system interface to manage an external hardware appliance in the computer network comprises receiving a request in a web-based interface; wherein receiving a request in a web-based interface comprises receiving a selection of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for managing a plurality of external hardware appliances.