Abstract: A patch installation procedure may be generated and executed that is specific both to the patch and the configuration of the target computing system. Configuration data may be received that indicates the configuration of the target computing system. Installation metadata for the patch, describing the operations to be performed for installing the patch may also be received. A patch installation procedure may be generated that is based on both the configuration data and the installation metadata. This patch installation procedure may then be executed to automatically install the patch on the target computing system. In at least some embodiments, the target computing system may a distributed computing system including multiple nodes.

Abstract: A patch installation procedure may be generated and executed that is specific both to the patch and the configuration of the target computing system. Configuration data may be received that indicates the configuration of the target computing system. Installation metadata for the patch, describing the operations to be performed for installing the patch may also be received. A patch installation procedure may be generated that is based on both the configuration data and the installation metadata. This patch installation procedure may then be executed to automatically install the patch on the target computing system. In at least some embodiments, the target computing system may a distributed computing system including multiple nodes.

Abstract: According to the present invention, methods, apparatus, and computer readable medium are disclosed for defining a virtual domain in an electronic messaging system are disclosed. A virtual domain node is defined that corresponds to a real (non-virtual) domain. The virtual domain node resided in a hierarchically organized directory. A plurality of virtual domain attributes are then assigned to the virtual domain node. The directory is a tree based hierarchical directory arranged in such a way even in a multiple domain environment, a name search operation is executed as if in a flat name space.

Abstract: Precedence rules that govern the granting of user level services for a domain in a shared mail server for an email provider are disclosed. Accordingly, when a request for the user level service is made, a determination is made whether or not the requested service is a member of a proper set of allowed domain level services. If the requested user level service is within the proper set of allowed domain level services, then the requested user level service is granted. In so doing, the granted user level service becomes a member of the proper subset of the set of allowed domain level services for the shared mail server.