Patent ID: 7150041

Claim:
A storage system comprising: a storage device for storing data files to be accessed by one or more users; and a storage management system for managing the storage device, the storage management system comprising: a management object for controlling management access in response to a request from a manager connected to the storage management system through a network, said management object authenticating a second manager ID and a second password received through the network from the manager, in accordance with a first ID and a first password stored beforehand to authenticate the manager; a storage configuration information file containing settings of the storage system with respect to operation of the storage device; and a temporary software interface object for accessing the settings in the storage configuration information file through the network, said temporary software interface object to be created by said management object when both authentication of the second manager ID and authentication of the second password by said management object succeed, and to be expired after a predetermined permission time, wherein: the authenticated manager's access to the settings contained in the storage configuration information file is permitted only while the temporary software interface object exists, said management object transmits a key, comprising a randomly generated address of the temporary software interface object needed for communication through the network with the temporary software interface object, to the authenticated manager to enable management access to the storage configuration information file, and said temporary software interface object permitting an access to the settings in the storage configuration information file is erased after lapse of said predetermined permission time so as to expire access by the authenticated manager.