Patent ID: 7801060

Claim:
A network management apparatus connected to a plurality of network communication apparatuses, including: a network interface connectable to a network; a storage apparatus for storing thereinto a program and data; and a processor for executing a process operation in accordance with said program, a module that acquires information on apparatus types and apparatus identifiers as to said plurality of network communication apparatuses and a connection relationship between the network communication apparatuses, and holds the acquired information; a module that applies roles to said plurality of network communication apparatuses, respectively based upon the acquired information and a role assigning rule that defines correspondence between each of roles to be assigned to a present network communication apparatus and conditions for assigning which limit one of the apparatus types or the apparatus identifiers of one of the network communication apparatuses; a module that holds an operation policy in which an operating content is described with respect to a role; and a module that determines operating contents of the respective network communication apparatuses based upon the information pieces and the operation policies of said respective network communication apparatuses, and sets the determined operating contents to said network communication apparatuses.