Patent ID: 8171060

Claim:
A storage system, comprising: a storage apparatus that provides a plurality of logical volumes allocated to a server apparatus as a storage area that stores a data file generated by the server apparatus; a plurality of storage devices that are coupled to the storage apparatus and that provide a plurality of storage areas to which the data file stored in the storage apparatus is copied; and a data copy processing unit that performs the following operations: acquiring preservation period information that indicates a preservation period of the data file from the server apparatus, and calculating the preservation term of the data file from the preservation period information; managing a respective operation guarantee term for the storage apparatus and each of the storage areas of the plurality of storage devices; acquiring information indicating a data amount of the data file from the server apparatus; selecting a first storage area of the plurality of storage areas of the plurality of storage devices based on a comparison of the data amount of the data file and a respective capacity of each of the plurality of storage areas of the plurality of storage devices; and calculating data copy necessary time needed to copy the data file from a second storage area of the plurality of storage areas of the plurality of storage devices in which the data file is stored to the first storage area; and wherein the data copy processing unit determines whether a remainder of the respective operation guarantee term for the first storage area is less than the calculated data copy necessary time, wherein, upon determining that the remainder of the respective operation guarantee term for the first storage area is less than the calculated data copy necessary time, the data copy processing unit determines that copying the data file to the first storage area is not possible and outputs information indicating the determination, and wherein, upon determining that the remainder of the respective operation guarantee term for the first storage area is not less than the calculated data copy necessary time, the data copy processing unit starts copying the data file from the second storage area to the first storage area upon a migration start time, which is set based on the respective operation guarantee term for the second storage area and the calculated data copy necessary time, being reached.