Patent ID: 7490349

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for controlling a distribution of a system management product in a computer network, comprising: broadcasting a request from a policy server at a specified policy level to a set of computers in the computer network, the set of computers being arranged in a hierarchy, the request being sent to each computer in the set of computers at an equal or lower level of the hierarchy, the policy server including management policy software, wherein the specified policy level controls a distribution of the management policy software; determining whether each computer in the set of computers arranged in the hierarchy is subject to a management authority of the policy server at the specified policy level; receiving a reply from a computer in the set of computers, the reply comprising a status information that indicates whether the computer in the set of computers is subject to the management authority of the policy server, information about a software version of the system management product on the computer, and date information providing a previous update of the system management product, wherein the status information is selected from the group consisting of managed and unmanaged in one of a shared and dedicated mode, wherein a status information of managed indicates that the computer is subject to the management authority, and wherein a status information of unmanaged indicates that the computer is not subject to the management authority, wherein a dedicated mode indicates the presence of a single management authority, and wherein a shared mode indicates the presence of more than one management authority; and responsive to a determination that the computer in the set of computers is subject to the management authority of the policy server, distributing the system management product based on the specified policy level of the policy server, wherein the distributing comprises installing the software management product responsive to an absence of the software version information on the computer, updating software on the computer, and distributing new policies to the computer.