Patent ID: 7703019

Claim:
A computer-implemented method employed within a network of application server instances having a cluster architecture comprising: displaying a hierarchical tree structure having one or more tree nodes in a graphical user interface, each of the one or more tree nodes representing a resource of an application server instance within a cluster of application server instances, each application server instance within the cluster of application server instances having a group of server nodes configured with a redundant set of application logic and associated data, each server node within the group of server nodes having access to a central database associated with the cluster of application server instances, and a dispatcher in communication with a central service associated with the cluster of application server instances, the central service enabling synchronization and communication between each of the application server instances within the cluster of application server instances, the central service having a locking service and a messaging service, the locking service enabling synchronization by disabling access to a portion of configuration data and program code stored with the central database, the messaging service enabling communication among the groups of server nodes within each application server instance within the cluster of application server instances using a message passing protocol, wherein at least one of the resources the tree nodes represent is a service of the application server instance within the cluster of application server instances; receiving an input selecting the tree node representing the service of the application server instance within the cluster of application server instances; displaying a list of one or more service references associated with the service represented by the selected tree node in the graphical user interface; and displaying a relationship value for each listed service reference, wherein the relationship value is to specify a binary value that represents a strength of a relationship between the listed service reference and the service represented by the selected tree node, the strength of the relationship indicating whether the listed service reference is or is not automatically started when the service represented by the selected tree node is started.