Patent ID: 7260699

Claim:
A method of managing volumes of a plurality of storage systems by a management computer connected via a first network to the plurality of storage systems having volumes connected to a computer via a second network and storing data used by the computer, the method comprising the steps of: keeping a correspondence between each value of a level and characteristic information related to characteristics of each volume of the volumes provided by the plurality of storage systems; obtaining from a first storage system, a first value of a level indicating characteristic information of a first volume having been provided to the computer by the first storage system; referencing the characteristic information corresponding to the first value among the plurality of storage systems; comparing the referenced characteristic information among the plurality of storage systems; and selecting a volume based on the comparison to allocate the selected volume to the computer, wherein the correspondence is obtained from the storage system connected to the management computer, and wherein the comparison of the characteristic information of respective volumes is also performed when a new correspondence is obtained from the first storage system.