Patent ID: 8762508

Claim:
A system comprising: a processor and a memory including a module configured to cause the processor to: manage configuration drift of a plurality of computers by: defining a configuration baseline for the plurality of computers by defining a collection of configuration rules, wherein each of the collection of configuration rules is associated with a target comprising a managed entity comprising a program, a service, an application, a database, an operating system or a website, wherein a configuration rule of the collection of configuration rules includes a set of commands to automatically run to remediate configuration drift for the configuration rule to return a target to a state of compliance with the configuration baseline, wherein the configuration baseline is created by combining at least one configuration setting read from each of a plurality of existing computers; generating a management pack based on the defined configuration baseline including the collection of configuration rules; sending the management pack to at least one of the plurality of computers; and receiving information from the at least one of the plurality of computers, the information comprising an assessment of configuration drift of the at least one of the plurality of computers based on an assessment of the at least one of the plurality of computers for configuration drift performed by the at least one of the plurality of computers based on the management pack, configuration drift comprising deviation from the configuration baseline of an actual configuration of the at least one computer.