Patent ID: 8438346

Claim:
A virtual storage system comprising: a storage subsystem having virtual storage devices to emulate physical storage devices of an actual storage system; and a controller to: detect a status change of a particular physical storage device in the actual storage system, the status change comprising at least one of loading of the particular physical storage device and ejecting of the particular physical storage device; and in response to detecting the status change of the particular physical storage device, perform synchronization between the virtual storage system and the actual storage system by updating a state of a corresponding virtual storage device in the virtual storage system, wherein the controller is configured to update the state of the corresponding virtual storage device by: in response to the particular physical storage device being loaded in the actual storage system, checking whether the corresponding virtual storage device exists in the virtual storage system; and in response to determining that the corresponding virtual storage device does not exist in the virtual storage system, creating the corresponding virtual storage device.