Patent ID: 7983178

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a processor to perform operations for generating a simulated fabric of a simulated storage area network, the operations comprising: logging into a physical storage area network as an unofficial physical fibre channel switch connected to the simulated storage area network, wherein the logging into the physical storage area network as the unofficial physical fibre channel switch connected to the simulated storage area network includes participating in a merge operation of a physical fabric of the physical storage area network and a simulated fabric of the simulated storage area network, wherein a fabric is a fibre channel communication network topology, wherein the physical storage area network is a first network and the simulated storage area network is a simulation of a second storage area network; and maintaining a fabric testing between the physical storage area network and the simulated storage area network based on being logged into the physical storage area network as the unofficial physical fibre channel switch, wherein the simulated fabric is modified by at least one of: inserting at least one simulated fibre channel switch into the simulated storage area network, inserting at least one simulated end device into the storage area network, removing at least one simulated fibre channel switch from the storage area network, and removing at least one simulated end device from the storage area network.