Patent ID: 8280715

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a first selection via a user interface comprising a storage hardware configuration for a simulated computer storage system, the storage hardware configuration including a plurality of storage hardware components wherein the configuration of the plurality of storage hardware components comprises a controller enclosure model, a number of each controller model, a model of each controller type, a model of drive trays, a number of each drive tray model, a number of drives per tray for each model, and a number of drives per model; receiving a second selection via the user interface comprising a storage configuration for the plurality of storage hardware components of the simulated computer storage system, the storage configuration including at least one of a RAID volume, a logical unit number masking, a hot spare drive, or a mirror; creating a storage configuration template utilizing the storage configuration; associating the plurality of storage hardware components of the simulated computer storage system with the storage configuration template; storing a configuration of the plurality of storage hardware components of the simulated computer storage system and the associated storage configuration template; and loading the storage configuration from the storage configuration template into a manufactured storage system including the configuration of the plurality of storage hardware components.