Patent ID: 7609651

Claim:
A method for managing configuration information associated with a storage area network, the method comprising: via at least one processor in a computer system, retrieving configuration information indicating configurations of different types of resources in a storage area network; based on the configuration information, generating a set of records, each record in the set including corresponding identifiers indicating the different types of resources associated with a respective storage area network configuration; and maintaining the set of records in an order depending on respective values of at least a portion of the corresponding identifiers in the set of records; wherein generating the set of records includes: generating a first record to include: i) a first numerical value that indicates a first type of storage area network resource associated with a first storage area network configuration, and ii) a second numerical value that indicated a second type of storage area network resource associated with the first storage area network configuration; and generating a second record to include: i) the first numerical value indicating the first type of storage area network resource associated with a second storage area network configuration, and ii) a third numerical value that indicates a third type of storage area network resource associated with the second storage area network configuration.