Patent ID: 7613878

Claim:
A management apparatus that manages a storage device provided externally, comprising: a management data obtaining module that obtains, while the storage device is in operation, management data indicating which of a plurality of disk groups in the storage device is active, from the storage device, wherein the plurality of disk groups comprises a RAID group including at least one logical volume, and wherein the management data indicates a number of active RAID groups, an active RAID group identification number, and an upper limit value indicating a number of RAID groups that are able to be active at any given point in time; and a processing executor that executes, while the storage device is in operation, predetermined processing with reference to the management data regarding the storage device in order to utilize a logical volume belonging to a disk group in the plurality of disk groups in the storage device while ensuring that a number of active disk groups in the storage device does not exceed the upper limit value, wherein the processing executor determines, when one of the logical volumes in the RAID group is access or a new logical volume is set to be added to the RAID group, if activation of the RAID group is necessary and to determine if the activation would cause the upper limit value to be exceeded, wherein the process executor further sends a first instruction to the storage device indicating whether the upper limit value is exceeded and sends a second instruction to the storage device indicating that activation of the RAID group is necessary and to activate the RAID group, and wherein an activity of a disk group in the plurality of disk groups in the storage device is controlled dynamically.