Patent ID: 8166128

Claim:
A system for dynamically configuring a virtual volume associated with a host system, comprising: a set of storage devices, each of which includes physical block addresses for storing data associated with the virtual volume; and a network switch system connecting the host system and the set of storage devices, and including: a set of storage processors maintaining virtual volume objects comprising first tier objects reflecting a relationship between the physical block addresses and one or more logical partitions of virtual volume data, and second tier objects reflecting a logical configuration of the virtual volume, wherein the second tier objects reflect connections between a processor and a host system and the first tier objects reflect connections between a processor and a storage device storing virtual volume data, wherein, the network switch system uses the first and second tier objects to dynamically update the virtual volume during runtime of the network switch system, and the first tier objects have logical connections to both local second tier objects associated with a shared storage processor and to remote second tier objects associated with at least another storage processor.