Patent ID: 7043545

Claim:
One or more computer-readable media having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: associate each of a plurality of management agents with one of a plurality of ownership domains, wherein each of the plurality of management agents is responsible for managing at least a portion of a computer and is external to the computer; allow only one of the plurality of management agents to have an extended set of rights to the computer at a time, and assign the remaining management devices a more limited set of rights, wherein the more limited set of rights includes: the right to revoke an existing ownership domain and the right to modify filters in the computer, including the right to add a filter that cannot be subverted by a management agent assigned to the top-level ownership domain; and restrict which requests from management devices corresponding to the plurality of management agents are carried out based at least in part on the rights of the management agent.