System for configuring computer devices according to configuration patterns

摘要

A method for configuring devices in a computer system using pattern matching is disclosed. The method constructs the initial configuration pattern by retrieving and storing a working device configuration in the configuration pattern. For each resource item of a supported resource type of a device, the method generates a resource combination matching a configuration pattern, which is updated after each testing iteration, to check in a deterministic order for a configuration conflict until a non-conflicting resource is found. If a conflicting resource is found, the method has the option of moving the conflicting resource to a non-conflicting resource. The process recursively repeats itself for each supported resource type of a device to produce a device configuration matching the configuration pattern. Each next potential device configuration is deterministically generated using a configuration index and the configuration pattern. The method thus eliminates the need to continuously store device configurations and the need to check the configurations of every device in a computer system before configuring a device.