Patent ID: 8635618

Claim:
A method, in a configuration management system, for identifying conflicts in scheduling data center changes, the method comprising: receiving, by the configuration management system, from a user a change request to perform a task to effect a change to a configurable item in a data center within a given time window; selecting, by a conflict management component, a task type plugin from a plurality of task type plugins corresponding to a task type of the respective change request, wherein the task type plugin provides conflict detection logic for the task type of the change request to supplement the conflict management component; determining, by the conflict management component in the configuration management system, whether the change request has a conflict based on the configurable item and the given time window by invoking the selected task type plugin, wherein the conflict is based on one or more of: 1) tasks on which the change request depends not being completed, 2) a previously scheduled change request for the configurable item within the given time window, 3) a resource for effecting the change to the configurable item not being available within the given time window, or 4) a violation of a service level agreement; responsive to the selected task type plugin determining the change request results in a conflict, notifying the user of the conflict and requesting the user to modify the change request; and responsive to the selected task type plugin determining the change request does not result in a conflict based on the configurable item and the given time window, the conflict management component scheduling a task to effect the change to the configurable item within the given time window.