Patent ID: 7240153

Claim:
A storage system, comprising: a disk array system including plural storage devices that carry out data write or read to memory areas, a storage device control unit that controls data write or read to said plural storage devices, a channel control unit that receives a write request or a read request from a host machine connected to a network outside said disk array system, a shared memory to which control information including configuration information communicated by said channel control unit and said storage device control unit is stored, a cache memory to which data communicated between said channel control unit and said storage device control unit is temporarily stored, a connection unit that is connected to said channel control unit, said storage device control unit, said shared memory and said cache memory, and a management terminal, that is connected to said channel control unit, said storage device control unit and said shared memory, which controls said disk array system; wherein said host machine is connected to said channel control unit in said disk array system via a first network/interface; and a management client that is connected to said management terminal in said disk array system via a second network/interface that is physically and logically different from said first network/interface, wherein said shared memory in said disk array system has management information for uniformly managing operation authority for the configuration information in said shared memory that is used in common by both of said host machine and said management client, and wherein said channel control unit has a function to give the operation authority for changing said configuration information to either said host machine or said management client based on said control information in said shared memory in response to an access request from said host machine or said management client, wherein said management information includes an identifier of an operator having the operation authority, acquisition time of the operation authority, and release scheduled time of the operation authority, wherein said channel control unit gives the operation authority with a time limit from said acquisition time to said release scheduled time to an operator who has said operation authority based on said identifier of the operator, said acquisition time, and said release scheduled time, wherein said management information further includes initial operation authority holding time, and wherein said channel control unit determines the time limit from said acquisition time to said release scheduled time based on said initial operation authority holding time.