Patent ID: 7409496

Claim:
A storage management system comprising: a plurality of storage apparatuses each comprising one or more volumes for storing data; a volume virtualization apparatus for virtually and unitarily managing volumes which the plurality of storage apparatuses comprise; and a storage management server for managing data reallocation between or among volumes in one of the storage apparatuses, or between or among volumes in the plurality of storage apparatuses, which are connected in the system, wherein the storage management server comprises: a storing portion for including and storing volume property information for managing a volume property indicating a property of each of the volumes, a classification policy which is a condition for classifying the volume in regard to the volume property, and a data allocation policy for managing a request from a user relevant to data allocation; and a control portion for classifying the volumes based on the volume property information and the classification policy in advance, and for reallocating data in a moving source volume specified by the user to a volume meeting a class specified by the user or a class meeting the data allocation policy, and expelling data present in a reallocation destination as needed.