Patent ID: 8856337

Claim:
A method for provisioning a cluster system in a virtual machine environment in a storage system, the storage system having a plurality of hosts, a storage array, and a management server, the method comprising: providing an inventory database including resource information, the resource information having a virtual computer network address and a virtual storage network address; creating a virtual I/O (“vIO”) information, the vIO information associating a vIO device with at least one virtual computer network address and at least one virtual storage network address, the virtual computer network address and the virtual storage network address being selected from the inventory database; providing cluster information for a cluster in a plurality of clusters, the cluster information associating the vIO information with volume information of a storage array; in advance of assigning the vIO device to one of selected hosts: defining a virtual computer network for the cluster, including configuring a first switch according to the virtual computer network address of the vIO information, defining a virtual storage network for the cluster, including configuring a second switch according to the virtual storage network address of the vIO information, and configuring the storage array according to the volume information; accepting a selection of the cluster from the plurality of clusters; accepting a selection of hosts in the plurality of hosts; and creating a first cluster system based on the selected cluster and the selected hosts, including assigning the vIO device to the one of the selected hosts using the vIO information associated with the selected cluster, wherein the one of the selected hosts communicates using the virtual computer network address associated with the vIO device, and communicates with the storage array using the virtual storage network address associated with the vIO device.