Patent ID: 7970945

Claim:
A method for verifying the content contained on components of a distributed network, each component comprising a plurality of content-based parameters, the method comprising: determining if there is a redundancy group by establishing components that have at least one similar property; selecting at least one content based parameter of the plurality of content-based parameters, specifying at least one content associated with a first selected component of the redundancy group, wherein the content based parameter represents content resident on the component, wherein the redundancy group comprises a plurality of components of the distributed network and wherein the each component of the redundancy group exhibits multiple content-based parameters common to each component of the redundancy group; recording the at least one content based parameter; collecting a plurality of values of the at least one content based parameter specifying at least one content from each component of the plurality of components of the redundancy group; comparing for equivalence the plurality of values with the at least one content based parameter specifying at least one content wherein the comparing comprises: determining for each of the plurality of values a range as a function of the at least one content based parameter and a known tolerance value, wherein the determined range for each value of the plurality of values excludes the value of the at least one content based parameter of the component being determined; and determining whether the value of the content based parameter associated with the excluded component is within the determined range; and providing, based on the determining, an indication when the value of one of the plurality of values of the at least one parameter specifying at least one content associated is not the same.