Patent ID: 7584382

Claim:
A method in a computer system for identifying a configuration parameter that is likely causing a component to exhibit an undesired behavior, the method comprising: collecting suspect values for suspect configuration parameters of the component; providing sample values for the suspect configuration parameters for sample components, the providing of values including retrieving the sample values for the suspect configuration parameters from each sample component, wherein the retrieving of the sample values is performed after collecting the suspect values; comparing the suspect values with the sample values to identify a suspect configuration parameter whose suspect value is likely to be causing the component to exhibit the undesired; and aggregating the sample values prior to collecting the suspect values to facilitate comparing to the suspect values; wherein the aggregating includes counting a number of distinct sample values for each suspect configuration parameter, wherein the aggregating includes counting a number of sample components that have each distinct sample value of a configuration parameter, and wherein the collecting includes running a program that intercepts and records accesses by the component to a configuration data store.