In a typical computer network, at least some of the managed resources are monitored to determine whether those resources are meeting predetermined performance goals or service level objectives. To simplify the process of configuring a network monitor, information about the service level objectives is loaded into the resource itself. When the resource is detected, the service level objective information is extracted from the resource information and made available to a translating engine. The translating engine converts the extracted information to monitoring directions that are used to configure the network monitor. Embodiments in which new resources are detected either buying a registration process or a polling process are described.