Patent ID: 7401338

Claim:
A storage area network (SAN), comprising one or more hardware devices configured to implement: a SAN access layer configured to discover a plurality of SAN objects and to gather information items from the plurality of SAN objects, wherein the plurality of SAN objects are coupled to a SAN fabric, wherein the SAN access layer includes an interface configured to provide access to a plurality of functions of the SAN access layer, and wherein the plurality of functions comprise one or more SAN management functions for performing one or more of discovery of the SAN objects, SAN security, or access configuration of the SAN; a client application; and a SAN access layer Application Programming Interface (API) that provides access to only a portion of the plurality of functions of the SAN access layer, wherein the SAN access layer API is configured to: receive authentication information from the client application; determine a level of access to the plurality of functions of the SAN access layer based on the authentication information, wherein each level of access is associated with a respective subset of the portion of the plurality of functions of the SAN access layer; receive one or more request messages formatted according to the SAN access layer API from the client application; determine if the one or more request messages correspond to the determined level of access; if the one or more request messages correspond to the determined level of access: generate one or more request messages formatted according to the interface of the SAN access layer from the one or more request messages formatted according to the SAN access layer API; and transmit the one or more request messages formatted according to the interface of the SAN access layer to the SAN access layer; wherein the SAN access layer is configured to perform one or more of the plurality of functions to manage the SAN in response to the one or more request messages formatted according to the interface of the SAN access layer.