Patent ID: 7827476

Claim:
In a storage area network, a method for executing tasks associated with storage area network management comprising: enumerating a plurality of tasks which have previously been scheduled for execution by the storage area network, the tasks corresponding to a plurality of applications for performing management operations on manageable entities in the storage area network; organizing the tasks according to a hierarchical structure indicative of related tasks and manageable entities affected by the tasks and organizing the tasks according to a plurality of attributes, wherein the same task is identifiable by each of the plurality of attributes and wherein the attributes include status, logs, and affected manageable entities; and presenting a plurality of display panes on a display screen, each of the display panes operable to display task management information; wherein a first of the plurality of display panes comprise an ordered display of the tasks, the ordered display dynamically responsive to user requests and indicative of the organized hierarchical structure; wherein a second of the plurality of display panes, separate from the first display pane, comprises a selection tree pane which displays a hierarchical selection tree indicative of tasks; wherein a third of the plurality of display panes, separate from the first and second display panes, comprises a context details pane which displays context specific details corresponding to a selected row icon in the task list pane.