Patent ID: 7107257

Claim:
A system for managing computer system performance, comprising: a workstation including existing installed components, the installed components including at least one of software, hardware device, system upgrade, and a peripheral device; a consolidated monitoring tool executing on the workstation; and a link to a communications network; wherein upon installing a new component or acquiring a new service for the workstation, the consolidated monitoring tool performs: querying the workstation for an inventory of the existing installed components; acquiring vendor contact information for the new component; building a database of information acquired in response to the querying, the database of information including product information relating to the existing installed components, the product information including a product name, current release level, current maintenance level, and a web site address for each vendor system associated with the existing installed components; connecting to a web site for a vendor system associated with the new component via the link; retrieving product information relating to the new component from the web site; verifying requirements and compatibility of the new component against the existing installed components based upon results of the retrieving and the product information relating to the existing installed components; and determining an optimum configuration for the workstation based upon the verifying, and configuring the workstation in accordance with the optimum configuration.