1. A method of processing a change to a state of a particular managed server within an administrative domain, wherein the administrative domain includes a plurality of managed servers that use management instructions to configure management modules so that the configured management modules implement an administrative domain-wide management policy that comprises a set of one or more rules, the method comprising: modifying a first description of the particular managed server to indicate the particular managed server's changed state, thereby specifying a second description of the particular managed server; comparing the unmodified first description to the second description, thereby specifying a description change; determining, based on the description change, whether to update management instructions previously sent to the particular managed server; and responsive to determining to update the particular managed server's management instructions: determining, based on the second description, which rules within the set of rules are currently relevant to the particular managed server, thereby specifying currently-relevant rules; determining whether the currently-relevant rules differ from previously-relevant rules, wherein the previously-relevant rules were determined based on the unmodified first description; and responsive to determining that the currently-relevant rules are identical to the previously-relevant rules, taking no further action.