Abstract: Computer systems and methods are disclosed for managing a deployment of a software application. One system includes an application model describing the deployment, the application model comprising a representation of physical and logical objects in a domain of the deployment, configuration data about the objects, and information about relationships between the objects. The system also includes a root cause analysis module configured to identify one or more problematic objects of the application model, and to use pattern-recognition on the application model to find root cause candidates that may be a root cause of one or more problems associated with the problematic objects. The root cause analysis module can be further configured to apply diagnostic unit tests on one or more objects associated with the root cause candidates, the diagnostic unit tests configured to narrow down a list of possible root causes of the problems.

Abstract: A technique for identifying an object selected from a plurality of objects displayed on an output display is disclosed. The technique includes grouping the objects into a plurality of scenes based on natural groupings. An identifier for each object is generated that uniquely identifies each object displayed. The identifier is dynamically partitioned into "n" segments based on the graphics subsystem, and each segment is mapped to a color representation in the graphics subsystem. In response to user selection of one of the objects, location information, which identifies the location of an object on the display, is generated. During each of "n" time intervals, a color mapped segment for each object is painted in a back buffer of a double buffered graphics subsystem, and the back buffer is subsequently queried for the color at the user selected location. The segments are accumulated to assemble the identifier for the selected object.