Patent ID: 7849180

Claim:
A computerized method for provisioning storage, the method comprising: determining available performance capacities of storage servers and storage devices in a storage infrastructure using a plurality of metrics, wherein each of the storage devices is managed by one of the storage servers; analyzing a relationship between the plurality of metrics; selecting an aggregate from which to assign storage capacity to a volume from a plurality of aggregates, the selecting being based on the available performance capacities of the storage servers and storage devices and the relationship between the plurality of metrics and being performed without information about performance properties of the volume being available, wherein unavailable performance properties include a load on the volume, a bandwidth requirement for the volume and an input/output instructions per second (IOPS) requirement for the volume, wherein the aggregate is hosted by a storage server and includes a plurality of storage devices; and automatically allocating storage capacity of the selected aggregate to the volume, wherein the plurality of aggregates are approximately load balanced after said allocating.