Patent ID: 7162576

Claim:
A storage system comprising: a plurality of disks; and a disk controller receiving a request from a computer and controlling input/output processing to/from said disks, wherein said disk controller comprises: a plurality of processors, a plurality of memories each of which stores an operating program of the storage system, a plurality of first interfaces each of which controls input/output processing from/to said computer, a plurality of second interfaces each of which controls input/output processing to/from a disk, a cache memory that stores data for exchange with said computer and that is employed in shared manner by said plurality of processors, and a data transfer control section that controls transfer of data stored in the cache memory in accordance with requests from each of said plurality of processors, wherein each of said memories, each of said first interfaces, and each of said second interfaces are provided for exclusive use by each of the processors, wherein said cache memory further stores common management information which includes system information of said storage system, configuration information of logical volumes formed on said disks and ownership right information indicating which of the processors are responsible for which of the logical volumes and cache management information corresponding to each processor to permit said processor to manage at least a portion of said cache memory, and wherein each of said processors accesses the memory and the portion of the cache memory dedicated for its exclusive use to execute the operating program stored in the memory and controls the first interface and second interface dedicated for its exclusive use to perform input/output processing requested from said computer based on said common management information and said cache management information stored in the cache memory.