Patent ID: 7512894

Claim:
A method of managing computer hardware components, the method comprising: (a) displaying a pictorial representation on a computer display, the pictorial representation associated with a plurality of hardware components and representing a physical configuration of each of the plurality of hardware components that conveys a relative placement and location of at least a subset of the hardware components in physical space, wherein each of the plurality of hardware components is associated with at least one attribute; (b) in response to user input, indicating a selected status for multiple hardware components from the plurality of hardware components within the pictorial representation associated with the plurality of hardware components, wherein indicating the selected status includes: (1) selecting a filter criterion from a plurality of predetermined filter criteria, each of the plurality of predetermined filter criteria associated with a predetermined view among a plurality of views; (2) comparing attributes associated with the plurality of hardware components against the selected filter criterion; and (3) selecting those hardware components associated with attributes that match the selected filter criterion, wherein the pictorial representation continues to depict at least one non-selected hardware component after such selection; (c) after indicating the selected status for the multiple hardware components, dynamically retrieving a list of available management operations associated with at least two selected hardware components among the multiple hardware components having a selected status, wherein the list of available management operations includes only management operations that are appropriate for being performed on all of the multiple hardware components having a selected status; (d) displaying the list of available management operations within a context sensitive menu after indicating the selected status for the multiple hardware components; and (e) performing a management operation from among the list of available management operations on all of the multiple hardware components that have a selected status responsive to user input directed to the context sensitive menu.