Managing configurations of system management agents in a distributed environment

A computer program product embodied in a computer readable storage medium for managing system management agent configurations, which comprise agent system management programs and program parameters, in a distributed environment comprising distributed systems having at least one agent installed, the computer program product comprising the programming instructions for:

• requesting a configuration server to send a configuration record describing an agent configuration for a distributed system needing a configuration;
• receiving from the configuration server the configuration record describing the agent configuration;
• computing a current agent configuration record corresponding to a current agent configuration installed on the distributed system needing the configuration;
• identifying if the current agent configuration record is different from the configuration record received from the server, and requesting the configuration server to send a list of distributed systems which are supposed to have the same agent configuration in response to the current agent configuration record being different from the configuration record received from the server;
• contacting the distributed systems of the list and selecting one having a current configuration record which matches the configuration record received from the server;
• requesting the matching distributed system of the list to send its agent configuration;
• and
• upon reception of the agent configuration, installing the agent configuration on the distributed system needing the configuration.

A system, comprising:

• a memory unit for storing a computer program for managing system management agent configurations, which comprise agent system management programs and program parameters, in a distributed environment comprising distributed systems having at least one agent installed;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory unit, wherein the processor, responsive to the computer program, comprises:
• circuitry for requesting a configuration server to send a configuration record describing an agent configuration for a distributed system needing a configuration;
• circuitry for receiving from the configuration server the configuration record describing the agent configuration;
• circuitry for computing a current agent configuration record corresponding to a current agent configuration installed on the distributed system needing the configuration;
• circuitry for identifying if the current agent configuration record is different from the configuration record received from the server, and requesting the configuration server to send a list of distributed systems which are supposed to have the same agent configuration in response to the current agent configuration record being different from the configuration record received from the server;
• circuitry for contacting the distributed systems of the list and selecting one having a current configuration record which matches the configuration record received from the server;
• circuitry for requesting the matching distributed system of the list to send its agent configuration;
• and
• circuitry for installing the agent configuration on the distributed system needing the configuration upon reception of the agent configuration.