Patent ID: 7739447

Claim:
A method comprising: determining that a storage device of a multi-device storage system is unusable within a logical group of storage devices due to an error with label data of the storage device that indicates an association of the storage device with the logical group to which it belongs, the error with the label data causing the storage device to have incorrect information about the association with the logical group, the storage system having multiple logical data containers defining logical groups of storage devices, each data container having software objects to represent the storage devices, where a property of a software object corresponds to a status of the represented storage device; logically isolating the storage device from the storage system, including isolating the storage device from the logical group to which the storage device belongs, while maintaining storage service access to another storage device in the storage system including maintaining the logical group online, the logically isolating including preventing the storage device from being assimilated into the storage system as a storage resource of a logical group; performing maintenance on the isolated storage device including modifying the label data on the storage device to indicate a correct association of the storage device with the logical group; and assimilating the storage device back into the storage system after performing the maintenance.