Abstract: Techniques for deploying, maintaining and configuring complex hardware and software systems are provided. An abstract configuration of the system describes the system's desired state. Each component of the system declares the general form of the resources it requires and an abstract representation of the versions of the services it both requires and provides. A configuration process uses the abstract configuration of the system and the descriptions of each of the components in the system to validate that the system can operate effectively, ensures that each component is in the correct state and at the right version, and generates the necessary interconnections for the application components to interoperate with each other.

Abstract: Techniques for upgrading and/or downgrading a data resource deployed on a machine from one version to another version are provided. An application component that defines the data resource may provide an up/down tool for use in changing the data resource component from one version to another version. The up/down tool comprises an up/down process and one or more version conversion rules. The up/down process utilizes the provided version conversion rules to determine the ability of the up/down tool to deploy the data resource and to actually deploy the data resource.

Abstract: A system and method for managing a portal is described. A portal server application includes a portal manager in communication with a user interface of a web browser. The portal manager includes a database for storing metadata related to elements accessible from a portal. The user interface displays a navigational hierarchy of the elements that a user is authorized to access from the portal. The navigational hierarchy of elements is arranged in accordance with metadata in the database.