Patent ID: 7313650

Claim:
A server coupled to both an archive host that outputs a digital archive and to a plurality of storage control systems that include disk-type storage devices in which the digital archive is stored, wherein the server being interfaceable with: a plurality of physical volumes constituting storage regions for storing the digital archive, provided in two or more of the disk-type storage devices of the plurality of storage control systems; one or more physical IDs, each of which is allocated to one or more physical volumes of the plurality of physical volumes of the storage control systems, and which are managed by the individual storage control systems; and a plurality of logical IDs, each of which is allocated to each of the plurality of physical volumes, and which are managed by the archive host; wherein the server comprises: a volume management storage region that stores a logical ID, a physical ID, and a control system ID of a storage control system that includes the physical volume, for each of the plurality of physical volumes; extraction means, which, when the designation of a logical ID selected from among the plurality of logical IDs is received from the archive host, extracts the physical ID and control system ID that correspond with the received logical ID, from the volume management storage region; access path reporting means for reporting, to the archive host, access path information for accessing the physical volume with the physical ID, this access path information being based on the physical ID and control system ID thus extracted; storage deadline setting means for setting, in the volume management storage region, an archive storage deadline that is expressed as a period for a certain physical volume on which the digital archive is stored; first duration detection means for detecting a first duration, which is a duration from a time the digital archive is saved in the certain physical volume until a current time; second duration detection means for detecting a second duration, which is a duration over which the storage control system including the certain physical volume is stopped; third duration calculation means for calculating a third duration, which is a difference between the first duration and the second duration; and erasure means for comparing the third duration thus calculated with the period expressed by the archive storage deadline set for the certain physical volume, judging whether the third duration is equal to or more than the period and, when a judgment result is affirmative, erasing the digital archive in the certain physical volume.