A method and apparatus for comparing two computing platforms installed with instances of an application, a portal or another computerized unit, wherein one computerized unit malfunctions when executed by the corresponding computing platform.The method and apparatus query the two computing platforms and the two instances for a multiplicity of values associated with a multiplicity of parameters that may influence the functionality, compare the parameter values and report the differences to a user, in order to enable the user to locate the root cause of the problem. The parameters may relate to the instances as well as to the computing platforms and their environment.The parameter retrieval and comparison can be performed by the apparatus, or by components of the instances for handling proprietary data types.