Patent ID: 8099497

Claim:
A method, comprising: determining to load a virtual volume of a storage area network (SAN) on a first computing device communicably connected to the SAN utilizing a controlling application; sending a first load command to the first computing device, causing the virtual volume to mount on the first computing device, utilizing the controlling application; determining to load the virtual volume on a second computing device communicably connected to the SAN utilizing the controlling application; sending an eject command to the first computing device, causing the virtual volume to unmount from the first computing device, utilizing the controlling application; and sending a second load command to the second computing device, causing the virtual volume to mount on the second computing device, utilizing the controlling application, wherein the controlling application is a central controlling application executing on a third computing device communicatively coupled to the first computing device and the second computing device, wherein one selected from the first load command, the second load command, and the eject command comprise a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) command, and the SCSI command includes a load eject (loej) bit in an START STOP UNIT SCSI command.