Patent ID: 8447737

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for creating a previous state of a configuration item, the method executed by one or more processors configured to perform a plurality of operations, the operations comprising: receiving a user request for a previous state of a configuration item, wherein the user request includes one or more search parameters, the one or more search parameters including one or more of: a previous date and time, or a particular value for a particular attribute of the configuration item; determining a current state of the configuration item in response to the user request, wherein the current state of the configuration item includes one or more current values of one or more attributes associated with the configuration item; retrieving one or more records associated with the configuration item from a log of records based on the one or more search parameters in the user request, wherein the log of records comprises a plurality of records associated with a plurality of configuration items, wherein the one or more retrieved records of the plurality of records associated with the configuration item store one or more changes to one or more values of the one or more attributes associated with the configuration item, wherein retrieving the one or more records associated with the configuration item is based on one or more of a value of a date and time attribute associated with the configuration item or the particular value of the particular attribute associated with the configuration item, and wherein the one or more retrieved records include one or more of: records storing changes from between a current date and time and the previous date and time of the user request, or records storing changes between a current value of the particular attribute and the particular value in the user request; and creating a previous state of the configuration item based on the one or more retrieved records by applying the one or more changes from the one or more retrieved records to the one or more current values of the one or more attributes associated with the configuration item to provide one or more previous values of the one or more attributes associated with the configuration item.