Patent ID: 8166136

Claim:
A storage management system that connects at least one client terminal to at least one storage apparatus via a communication network, comprising: a communication interface that receives a reservation request from said client terminal; a reservation manager that reserves a right of use of remaining capability of storage capability in said storage apparatus and a time slot of use of said remaining capability, in accordance with said reservation request, and manages reservation information indicating a result of said reservation, said storage capability including a data read rate and a data write rate for a data storage area, said storage capability including a free space in the data storage area; and a ticket issuer that issues a reservation ticket based on said reservation information to said client terminal, and transmits said reservation ticket to said client terminal, said ticket issuer issuing said reservation ticket only when said remaining capability is confirmed, said storage management system further comprising: a first table storage that stores a reservation management table on which a reservation state of said storage capability in said storage apparatus is recorded, said reservation management table including, as said reservation state of said storage capability for each reservation request from said client terminal, information about storage resources allocated to said reservations, reserved storage capability, and reserved time slot of use of said remaining capability; and a second table storage that stores a resource state management table on which storage resource state information indicating a current state of said storage capability of said storage apparatus is recorded, wherein said reservation manager, confirms said storage capabilities of said storage resources allocated to the other reservations at a time corresponding to the reservation time set by said client terminal to hope for an access request according to said reservation state in said reservation management table, refers said storage capabilities of said storage resources to said current state of said storage capability of said storage apparatus based on said storage resource state information in said storage state management table to obtain and check the remaining capability of said storage capability of said storage apparatus, allocates said remaining capability of said storage capability of said storage apparatus to said reservation request to reserve a time slot of use of said remaining capability, and causes said reservation management table to reflect said reservation information, the reserved time slot being indicated by start time and end time thereof.