Method and system for managing software installs in a distributed computer network

A system for managing installs to a set of one or more field machines, comprising:

• a set of change coordinator servers, wherein each change coordinator server includes a database, an install listener routine that receives reports from install reporter routines running on the given field machines and populates the database with data identifying the given software release running on the field machines, and a change controller routine for initiating a given control action to initiate an install on a given field machine, wherein the given control action is initiated if the given field machine requires an install of a new software release, wherein the change controller routine evaluates install data from the database and identifies a subset of the hosts against which the given control action may be safely executed at a given time, the change controller routine implementing a given heuristic that assigns a rank ordered set of hosts to a set of one or more timeslots in a greedy fashion to generate a schedule;
• and
• a set of install servers, wherein each install server is responsive to a change controller routine in a given change coordinator server initiating the given control action according to the schedule for invoking installation of the new software release on a given field machine.