Patent ID: 8060587

Claim:
A system in communication with a network comprising one or more network components comprising: a manager in communication with the network components having application processes residing on the network components; and an interface process in communication with the manager and the network components, wherein the interface process performs: obtaining information on the network components from the manager; maintaining a rules file having at least one rule for each of the network components, wherein each rule identifies the network component to be managed, one of a plurality of communication interface types, and a parameter name, wherein the parameter name is used with the communication interface type to invoke the application process residing on the network component; displaying information representing the network components; receiving selection of one displayed network component; accessing the rules file to determine at least one application process associated with the selected network component; displaying information on the at least one determined application process residing on the selected network component, wherein at least one of the determined application processes resides on the selected network component; receiving selection of one of the displayed application processes residing on the selected network component; accessing the rule from the rules file for the selected application process to determine information on the selected application process and the communication interface type and parameter name supported by the application process to use to launch the selected application process on the selected network component; and launching the selected application process on the selected network component using the determined communication interface type and parameter name from the rules file.