Patent ID: 7711924

Claim:
A method for providing hosts access to volumes configured in a storage system, comprising: assigning a first set of volumes to a first volume group; assigning a first host to the first volume group; assigning a second set of volumes to a second volume group; assigning a second host to the second volume group, wherein the first host only accesses volumes in the first volume group and the second host only accesses volumes in the second volume group, wherein one volume in both the first and second volume groups is accessible to both the first and second hosts while the volume is assigned to both the first and second volume groups, wherein each volume in the first and second volume groups has a base address, wherein the volume base addresses are assigned to the volume groups to which the volumes are assigned; defining at least one alias address that points to one base address to enable one host to concurrently submit multiple Input/Output (I/O) requests to one volume using the base address and the at least one alias address pointing to that base address; and assigning each alias address to the volume group including the base address to which the alias address points in response to generating the alias address, and wherein hosts only have access to the alias addresses in the volume group to which the host is assigned.