Patent ID: 7908349

Claim:
A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer useable medium having a computer readable program stored thereon, wherein the computer readable program, when executed in a data processing system including a plurality of subject entities and at least one authority entity: performs a resource management method for consistently self-configuring a subject entity within the plurality of subject entities when the computer readable program is run on a computer of the subject entity, wherein each subject entity in the plurality of subject entities controls an instance of at least one resource and belongs to at least one logic category of a plurality of logic categories and to at least one physic category of a plurality of physic categories, the at least one authority entity defining a target state of the at least one resource by: publishing a plurality of rules, at least one rule of the plurality of rules including an indication of the target state of the at least one resource for the at least one logic category of each subject entity and at least a further rule of the plurality of rules including the indication of the target state of the resource for the at least one physic category of each subject entity, and for each subject entity: determining if a current state of the at least one resource on the subject entity corresponds to the target state; responsive to the current state failing to correspond to the target state, enforcing a management action to bring the current state of the at least one resource to the target state; responsive to the current state corresponding to the target state, retrieving a first set of rules from the plurality of rules corresponding to the at least one logic category of the subject entity; configuring each subject entity according to the target state by applying the first set of rules; retrieving a second set of rules corresponding to the at least one physic category of each subject entity; and configuring the subject entity according to the target state by applying the second set of rules.