1. A method for generating a configuration schema instance comprising: receiving a layout file specifying what portion of configuration information is to be extracted from a configuration data store; extracting said portion of configuration information from said configuration data store in accordance with said layout file, said layout file including an association between a first configuration category as an input class and a second configuration category as a result class, said association corresponding to an application programming interface which is invoked in said extracting for an instance of said input class and extracts one or more instances of said result class from said configuration data store; and storing a representation of said portion of configuration information in said configuration schema instance, wherein said layout file and said configuration schema instance include logical configuration information and physical configuration information describing at least a partial configuration of a data storage system, said physical configuration information describing one or more physical storage devices of the data storage system, said logical configuration information describing at least one logical unit of storage and at least one of a RAID group and a storage group, said RAID group including said at least one logical unit of storage and said one or more physical storage devices, said storage group including said at least one logical unit of storage.