Methods and apparatus for processing partitioned changes

In a storage area network, agents provide transactions of data sets containing updates to manageable entities in a SAN. A SAN server avoids intermittent dissemination of events pertaining to a single transaction by storing events in a cache until completion of all subtransactions in the transaction, and then disseminating all events pertaining to the transaction. Transactions are broken down into update sections, each containing one or more subtransactions collectively defining the entire transaction. Update sections corresponding to the transaction are tagged with a section ID. Events indicating completion of processing of the update section are identified by the section ID, and suppressed temporarily by storing them in the event cache pending completion of the transaction. Other events not matching a tagged section ID are allowed to disseminate. Upon completion of the transaction, events for all section IDs corresponding to the transaction are disseminated from the cache.