Patent ID: 7085830

Claim:
A system for managing configuration inconsistencies between a network management system (NMS) and network elements (NEs), the system comprising: a user-interface including: an object field configured to identify database objects of the network management system, wherein each database object corresponds to a network element; a status field configured to display a database object state, wherein the database object state represents a relationship between a database object configuration and a network element configuration, wherein if an inconsistency is found between the database object configuration and the network element configuration, the inconsistency is shown as one of a plurality of configuration inconsistency types, the plurality of configuration inconsistency types including: a first inconsistency type, meaning an inconsistency exists between the database object configuration and the network element configuration; a second inconsistency type, meaning no network element exists for a selected database object; and a third inconsistency type, meaning that a network element exists, but that no corresponding database object exists; one or more selectable input mechanisms, each input mechanism performing a different action, wherein the inconsistency type shown is used to determine an input mechanism that, when selected by the user, performs an action that automatically resolves the inconsistency by editing the database object configuration and/or the network element configuration.