Patent ID: 7685261

Claim:
A system, comprising: a storage area network (SAN) access engine configured to receive SAN management commands; a plurality of explorers, each configured to provide an interface between a respective type of SAN component and the SAN access engine, wherein each of the plurality of explorers is a software agent configured to perform at least one SAN component discovery or management operation with the respective type of SAN component, and wherein each explorer corresponds to a different type of SAN component; and a data store configured to store data objects representing components of the SAN, wherein each data object comprises information about a corresponding SAN component; wherein the SAN access engine is configured to manage the data objects in the data store, wherein, in response to the commands, the SAN access engine is configured to select one or more of the explorers to perform one or more SAN component discovery or management operations, and wherein each explorer is selected based on a particular type of SAN component which corresponds to the one or more SAN component discovery or management operations.