Patent ID: 7721063

Claim:
A method for managing a primary storage subsystem and a backup storage subsystem, the method comprising the steps of: a computer identifying an available storage volume in the primary storage subsystem; the computer identifying a storage volume in the primary storage subsystem system prior to the available storage volume and another storage volume in the primary storage subsystem subsequent to the available storage volume, and identifying a serial number and a Logical Control Unit (LCU) number of the prior storage volume and a serial number and an LCU number of the subsequent storage volume; the computer determining if an address range of the available storage volume fills a gap in addresses between an address range of the prior storage volume and an address range of the subsequent storage volume; and if so and the prior storage volume and the subsequent storage volume have a same serial number and a same LCU number, the computer assigning and recording for the available storage volume the same serial number and the same LCU number as the serial number and LCU number for the prior storage volume and the subsequent storage volume, and if not but the prior storage volume and the subsequent storage volume have a same serial number and different LCU numbers, the computer determining an LCU number for the available storage volume based in part on extrapolation between the LCU number of the prior storage volume and the LCU number of the subsequent storage volume, and assigning and recording for the available storage volume the extrapolated LCU number and the same serial number as the serial number for the prior storage volume and the subsequent storage volume.