Patent ID: 8271622

Claim:
A method of implementing, in a computer having memory, a system management application tool, said method comprising: defining a common interface for an application framework; implementing a plurality of system management commands; encapsulating each of said plurality of system management commands with said common interface, said system management commands cooperating with said interface; implementing a conditional extension command corresponding to a system management command of said plurality of system management commands, wherein said conditional extension command comprises a command to control a first software application in a network comprising said computer, and said first software application is conditionally activated by said conditional extension command in response to a determination that a second software application is present within said network; receiving a request to execute at least one of said plurality of system management commands, wherein said receiving a request to execute at least one of said plurality of system management commands comprises receiving a request to execute said system management command corresponding to said conditional extension command; networking a plurality of computers in a distributed system together, said plurality of computers comprising at least one client and a server, wherein each of said computers is associated with said common interface, said at least one of said plurality of system management commands having a client-portion residing on said client and a server-portion residing on said server; invoking said at least one of said plurality of system management commands through said common interface of said application framework system of said management application tool in response to a receipt of said request, wherein said invoking comprises, generating said client-portion dynamically, and communicating with said client-portion at run-time utilizing said framework; and routing said request to execute said system management command corresponding to said conditional extension command across said network to an implementation of said conditional extension command.