System and method to manage interrelated devices in a computing infrastructure

A method comprising:

• receiving, using a configuration management client stored on a non-transitory medium and executed on at least one processor, a manifest file associated with a computing infrastructure comprising a plurality of computing devices each having one or more resources, wherein the manifest file includes one or more directives for provisioning the one or more resources of each of the plurality of computing devices, wherein the manifest file is structured according to an object oriented model including a class structure with information associated with a first resource that has a dependency to a second resource and the manifest file includes topology information comprising port information;
• identifying, using the configuration management client, a dependency from a communications link between a first resource and a second resource, the communications link indicated by the port information included in the topology information;
• translating, using the configuration management client, the class structure of the manifest file into one or more ordered explicit directives including applying a rule for the communication link, the rule based on the identified dependency and specifying that the first resource be provisioned before the second resource, and a first explicit directive for provisioning the first resource ordered before a second explicit directive for provisioning the second resource, the ordering of the first explicit directive before the second explicit directive specifying that the first resource is provisioned before the second resource is provisioned;
• and
• provisioning, using the configuration management client, the first resource and the second resource of each computing device using the one or more explicit directives, including at least the first explicit directive and the second explicit directive, in the translated manifest file.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with a configuration management client comprising modules executable by a processor comprising:

• a server interface module to receive a manifest file associated with a computing infrastructure comprising a plurality of computing devices each having one or more resources, wherein the manifest file includes one or more directives for provisioning the one or more resources of each of the plurality of computing devices, wherein the manifest file is structured according to an object oriented model including a class structure with information associated with a first resource that has a dependency to a second resource and the manifest file includes a topology information comprising port information;
• a dependency resolution module to:
• identify a dependency from a communications link between a first resource and a second resource, the communications link indicated by the port information included in the topology information;
• and
• translate the class structure of the manifest file into one or more ordered explicit directives including applying a rule for the communication link, the rule based on the identified dependency and specifying that the first resource be provisioned before the second resource, and a first explicit directive for provisioning the first resource ordered before a second explicit directive for provisioning the second resource, the ordering of the first explicit directive before the second explicit directive specifying that the first resource is provisioned before the second resource is provisioned;
• and
• a computing infrastructure interface module to provision the first resource and the second resource of each computing device using the one or more explicit directives, including at least the first explicit directive and the second explicit directive, in the translated manifest file.