Patent ID: 7761489

Claim:
A managing computer for managing a computer system, wherein said computer system comprises: a storage apparatus including a plurality of disk units for storing data therein, an interface connected to a network, and a disk controller responsive to an access request for data indicated by a logical address via one of a plurality of I/O ports, for accessing data stored in said disk units by converting the logical address into a physical address, with said plurality of disk units forming a plurality of logical disk volumes; and a plurality of file servers each thereof including a control unit for accessing data on a logical file basis to said storage apparatus by using the data access request via a first interface connected to one of said I/O ports of said storage apparatus, a second interface connected to said network, and a storage unit including a first table storing mount point identifiers of disk volumes that the particular file server recognizes for access, and a second table storing sharing identifiers of files that the particular file server recognizes, with each of the files being constituted by one or more logical data blocks, names of client computers permitted to access the files, and types of access rights to the files permitted by the client computers in a correspondence relationship manner, wherein said managing computer is connected to said storage apparatus and said plurality of file servers via an interface connected to said network, wherein said managing computer acquires contents of the first and second tables, and wherein, when a failure occurs on a disk volume, said managing computer: (a) determines whether or not there exists a file server connected to said failed disk volume; (b) if there exists a file server connected to said failed disk volume in step (a), determines from the first and second tables whether or not inhibition of an access by at least one client computer to a file of the failed disk volume is necessary; and (c) if the inhibition of an access by said at least one client computer is necessary in step (b), enables an associated file server to inhibit connection between said at least one client computer and the failed disk volume.