Patent ID: 7437676

Claim:
A method of displaying management information associated with a storage area network, the method comprising: receiving an identity of a selected managed entity existing in a storage area network; retrieving a first managed object from a management database that corresponds to the selected managed entity; identifying a sequence of relationships between the selected managed entity and other managed entities in the storage area network based on information in the first managed object and other corresponding managed objects in the management database; graphically displaying a first relationship view of the selected managed entity and at least one other managed entity of the storage area network based on use of columns of icons, a first column including at least two icons graphically representing a managed software entity, a second column including at least two icons graphically representing a managed storage entity, at least a portion of the sequence of relationships being graphically represented by relationship paths between icons in the first column and icons in the second column; graphically displaying a first container encompassing at least one of the first column of icons and the second column of icons; in a separate region from the first column of icons and the second column of icons, initiating display of a particular icon representing a particular storage are network resource; initiating display of a relationship path between the particular icon and a given icon in the first column; receiving a command to expand a viewing of the particular icon; in response to receiving the command, expanding the particular icon to include a third column of icons, the third column of icons including a group of icons representing resources associated with the particular storage area network resource; and in lieu of displaying a single relationship path between the particular icon and the given icon in the first column, initiating display of multiple relationship paths between icons in the third column and icons in the first column to illustrate that resources associated with the particular resource in the third column are related to resources represented by icons displayed in the first column.