Patent ID: 7430594

Claim:
A computer-based method for communicating dependency data specifying dependency relationships between networked resources, including: monitoring a first managed networked resource via a software agent executing on the first managed networked resource, wherein the software agent is managed by a software manager executing remotely from the first managed networked resource; collecting, by the software agent executing on the first managed networked resource, configuration data describing the first managed networked resource; extracting, by the software agent executing on the first managed networked resource, dependency data from the configuration data, the dependency data specifying either provider or consumer dependency relationships between the first managed networked resource and one or more other managed networked resources, wherein said provider dependency relationship indicates that a first problem at the first managed networked resource will propagate to the one or more other managed networked resources, and said consumer dependency relationship indicates that a second problem at the one or more other managed networked resources will propagate to the first managed networked resource; generating, at the first managed networked resource, a table that includes the extracted dependency data, wherein the table is stored separate from other configuration data associated with the first managed networked resource that has been collected by the software agent; offering access to the extracted dependency data in the table generated at the first managed networked resource, the access being offered via a dependency interface of the software agent executing on the first managed networked resource, the dependency interface being an interface for a distributed systems management protocol; and communicating the dependency data from the software agent to the software manager.