Patent ID: 7636771

Claim:
A network management apparatus for managing a plurality of client apparatuses and a plurality of network devices, comprising: a storage management unit configured to store and manage client group information indicating to which client group each of the plurality of client apparatuses belongs, and device group information indicating to which device group each of the plurality of network devices belongs, and stores connection information which indicates a logical connective relation between a client group and a device group; a reception unit configured to receive a predetermined network connection message from a network device through the network; a first specifying unit configured to specify, by referring to the device group information stored and managed by said storage management unit, a device group to which the network device which has issued the network connection message received by said reception unit belongs; a second specifying unit configured to specify, by referring to the connection information stored in said storage management unit, a client group in a logical connective relation with the device group specified by said first specifying unit; and a transmission unit configured to transmit, by referring to the client group information of the client group specified by said second specifying unit, a setup request message for a device driver corresponding to the network device which has issued the network connection message to each client apparatus as a constituent member of the client group specified by said second specifying unit.