VERIFYING THAT A NETWORK MANAGEMENT POLICY USED BY A COMPUTER SYSTEM CAN BE SATISFIED AND IS FEASIBLE FOR USE

A method and apparatus are provided for verifying policies that govern a policy-based system. The method and apparatus may be implemented as a policy verifier that acts upon one or more policies. Each policy comprises a condition and a consequent. The policy verifier acquires configuration information about the system under management, thereby acquiring an understanding of the system. The policy verifier determines whether all the policies can be satisfied by the system, and if not, reports problems or errors in the policies that cause the policies to be non-satisfiable. The policy verifier determines whether all the policies are feasible for the system, and if not, reports problems or errors that cause the policies to be non-feasible. The policy verifier also verifies that a configuration required by a particular policy consequent can be actually carried out by the managed system. In one embodiment, the policy verifier operates on network management policies, of a policy-based network management system. As a result, the invention improves the accuracy and safety of policies prepared for a network that previously did not use policy-based management.