Patent ID: 7962675

Claim:
A method for a storage area network, comprising: a management application executed by a first host system that executes a first operating system sending a command to a second host system; an adapter installed in the second host system receiving the command the second host system executing a second operating system that has limited capability compared to the first operating system, such that the second operating system is not fully functional to interface with the first host system via its adapter; a processor of the adapter installed in the second host system executing a management application interface stored in the adapter installed in the second host system; the management application interface executed by the adapter installed in the second host system parsing the command; and performing a task specified by the command, wherein the task is one or more of rebooting the second host system, updating firmware code for the adapter and updating information for the second host system and the management application interface forwards the command to an executable component of the adapter for executing the task specified by the command.