Patent ID: 8001349

Claim:
A computer system, comprising: at least one host computer including a processor, a memory, and an interface; at least one storage system coupled to the host computer; and a storage management server coupled to the host computer and the storage system, wherein the storage management server creates a storage certificate and transmits the storage certificate to the storage system, wherein the storage system comprises: a physical disk that stores data requested to be written by the host computer; a disk controller that controls input and output of data to and from the physical disk, and provides the host computer with a storage area of the physical disk, wherein the storage area is presented to the host as at least one logical unit; and an authentication unit, wherein the storage system integrates the storage certificate received from the storage management server into the authentication unit and notifies the storage management server that the storage certificate has been received, and wherein when the storage management server receives notification from the storage system that the storage certificate has been received, the storage management server creates a host certificate and transmits the host certificate to the host computer, wherein the host computer comprises: at least one application program that accesses the at least one logical unit; and a storage area access control unit, wherein the host certificate corresponds to both the application program and the at least one logical unit of the storage system, wherein the application program is a source of access to the storage system, wherein before the application program accesses the at least one logical unit, the storage area access control unit transmits authentication information including the host certificate to the storage system, that is used to verify that the application program is the source of the access to the storage system, wherein the storage system verifies the received host certificate, and upon succeeding in verifying the received host certificate, transmits a notice of the successful authentication to the storage area access control unit, wherein the storage area access control unit, upon receiving the notice of the successful authentication, permits the application program to access the logical unit, and wherein each of the storage certificate and the host certificate are digital certificates.