The invention relates to a method executed by a computer system to increase the ease and efficiency of the configuration management task in large, complex, distributed networks of heterogeneous computer systems. In this paradigm, referred to as management-by-subscription, a central ...http://www.google.de/patents/US5838918?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US5838918 - Distributing system configuration information from a manager machine to subscribed endpoint machines in a distrubuted computing environment 
