Patent ID: 7568037

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for managing a storage area network (SAN), the method comprising: defining storage domains respectively having associated configurable storage management properties that are separate from individual physical capabilities of physical storage resources available through the SAN, wherein a first set of storage management properties is associated with a first storage domain and a second set of storage management properties is associated with a second storage domain, with the first set of storage management properties being different from the second set of storage management properties; accommodating the creation of logical volumes configurable for presentation to hosts through the SAN; and allocating the logical volumes to hosts in the context of the storage domains, wherein allocating a logical volume to a host in the context of the first storage domain entails the provision of storage resources according to the first set of storage management properties and allocating a logical volume to a host in the context of the second storage domain entails the provision of storage resources according to the second set of storage management properties, wherein presentation of logical volumes to hosts accommodates storage resource access by hosts without requiring hosts to be configured according to the requirements of the physical storage resources, and wherein said allocation of logical volumes to hosts in the context of the storage domains entails provision of storage resources according to the respective storage management properties of the storage domains even though the logical volumes are created from physical storage resources in common.