Patent ID: 8380924

Claim:
A storage system having a storage device that includes a storage medium providing a plurality of unit logical storage areas used as data storage areas of an external apparatus and a plurality of processing devices communicatively coupled to the storage device to execute data IO processes for the unit logical storage areas from the external apparatus, the storage system comprising: a responsible processing device retaining unit configured to retain the unit logical storage areas and the processing devices executing the data IO processes of the unit logical storage areas in a correlated manner; a storage function retaining unit configured to retain the unit logical storage areas and storage function information that is information set for the unit logical storage areas to indicate the usage aspects of the unit logical storage areas in a correlated manner; and a processing device changing unit configured to acquire from the responsible processing device retaining unit the processing device responsible for data processes related to the logical storage areas based on the storage function set for the unit logical storage areas acquired from the storage function retaining unit for the unit logical storage areas to determine whether the same processing device is responsible for the unit logical storage areas, the processing device changing unit configured to change the processing device responsible for different one of the unit logical storage areas such that any one of the processing devices responsible for the unit logical storage areas becomes responsible for the different one of the unit logical storage areas if it is determined that the same processing device is not responsible.