A mechanism for making changes consistently across an application server domain or a cluster. Server configuration consistency is absolutely necessary for cluster deployments. The invention allows changes to the configuration repository and to the application deployment process to be managed via a Data Replication Service (DRS). The former requires that the configuration repository be version aware, while the latter breaks down the application deployment process into two phases--one for data distribution and processing as far as possible, and the second to expose the changes through the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI).