Patent ID: 7171624

Claim:
In a storage area network (SAN) comprising one or more host digital data processors in communication with a plurality of storage devices, the improvement comprising: a manager process, in communication with at least the one or more host digital data processors, that maintains a SAN representation, wherein the SAN representation includes components of the SAN, attributes of the components, segments, attributes of the segments, interconnections, and attributes of the interconnections, wherein the SAN is divided into several types of segments, wherein a segment is a portion of the SAN containing multiple interconnected components represented as at least one of individual components and one or more additional segments, wherein the manager process communicates with one or more agents, each of which is associated with one of the host digital data processors, to gather information regarding the attributes of the components, the attributes of the segments, and the attributes of the interconnections, and wherein the manager process validates the information gathered by the one or more agents, a graphical output device, a user interface process, coupled to the graphical output device, the user interface process controlling the output device for purposes of displaying a plurality of graphical objects that represent the components, segments, and interconnections of the SAN representation and, in response to selection of a graphical object, displaying an attribute of the selected graphical object, wherein the attribute is one of the attributes of a component, of a segment or of an interconnection, and an interface element, coupled to the manager process and to the user interface process, that effects retrieval of the SAN representation maintained by the manager process and transmission of the retrieved SAN representation to the output device for display.