Patent ID: 8868676

Claim:
A method for verifying server-storage device connectivity in a storage area network (SAN) environment comprising a plurality of servers, a processor, a plurality of switches, and a plurality of physical storage devices, the method comprising: receiving, by the processor, an input from a user to store data from a server of the plurality of servers to one or more of the plurality of physical storage devices, wherein the plurality of servers comprises at least two different types of servers selected from a mail server, an application server and a database server and wherein the plurality of physical storage devices comprises at least two different types of physical storage devices selected from an optical storage device, a tape storage device, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) configuration, and a just a bunch of disks (JBOD) configuration; obtaining, by the processor, for each port in each of the plurality of servers, each of the plurality of switches, and each of the plurality of physical storage devices a World Wide Port Name (WWPN) by querying each switch of the plurality of switches to identify the WWPN of each port in each server, physical storage device, or switch that is coupled to each port in each queried switch; discovering, by the processor, one or more paths from one or more of the plurality of servers through one or more of the plurality of switches to one or more of the plurality of physical storage devices by, for each port of each of the queried switches, linking the obtained WWPNs of each port coupled to the respective port of the queried switch; determining, by the processor, which of the plurality of physical storage devices the server is physically connected to by utilizing the discovered one or more paths in response to the input; after determining which of the plurality of physical storage devices the server is physically connected to, determining, by the processor in response to the input, which of the plurality of physical storage devices determined to be physically connected to the server the server has zoning access to based on a zoning configuration in the SAN environment by querying a zoning table stored in memory, the zoning table detailing the zoning configuration including a listing of the WWPNs of each port in the plurality of servers, the plurality of switches and the plurality of physical storage devices and any restrictions on any ports in a path that precludes the server from accessing one or more of the plurality of physical storage devices determined to be physically connected to the server; returning to the user a user interface indication listing one or more eligible physical storage devices for storing the data, the eligible physical storage devices being each physical storage device of the plurality of physical storage devices that the server is determined to be both physically connected to and has zoning access to; and enabling the user to select one of more of the eligible physical storage devices based on the indication.