Patent ID: 7249240

Claim:
A method of managing volumes of a plurality of storage systems, by a management computer, connected via a first network to the plurality of storage systems having volumes connected to a computer via a second network and storing data used by the computer, the method comprising the steps of: keeping a correspondence between a plurality of levels and characteristic information of each of the storage systems, wherein said levels are represented by values, each indicating a desirable performance of a volume with respect to a particular characteristic, as represented by characteristic information, of a storage system in which the volume can be created, wherein a high value indicates a high desire for a corresponding characteristic relative to a low value which indicates a low desire for the corresponding characteristic; obtaining from a first storage system a first value of a level corresponding to characteristic information of a first volume having been provided to the computer by the first storage system; referencing, by the management computer, characteristic information corresponding to the first value among the plurality of storage systems; comparing the referenced characteristic information among the plurality of storage systems to the characteristic information corresponding to the first value to determine a storage system which can provide better performance than the first storage system; and selecting a volume based on the comparison to allocate the selected volume to the computer.