1. A method for targeted maintenance of computing devices in a system, the method comprising: assessing a maintenance request to determine a class of computing devices to which the request applies; selecting a propagation mechanism applicable to the class of computing devices; generating an agent based on the propagation mechanism to carry out the maintenance request on the class of computing devices; deploying the agent on at least one computing device in the class of computing devices; and propagating the agent to additional devices in the class of computing devices; wherein at least one of the steps is carried out by a computer device.