Patent ID: 8296414

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for performing automated discovery processing in a network comprising: performing passive discovery processing including: monitoring, by a data storage system, transmissions sent over the network; identifying, by the data storage system in accordance with a plurality of different protocols, one or more data elements to be extracted from one or more messages included in the transmissions; extracting, by the data storage system, said one or more data elements from said one or more messages, said extracting including the data storage system extracting a first of said one or more data elements from a first message one or more data elements in accordance with at least a first protocol at an application layer, said first data element identifying an application which issued the first message; and determining, by the data storage system using said one or more data elements, first discovery information, said first discovery information including information identifying said application executing on a component in the network; and performing active discovery processing using said first discovery information, said active discovery processing including processing to obtain second discovery information regarding said application and said component identified by said first discovery information; wherein said automated discovery processing discovers storage configuration information about local storage of said component used by said application, and wherein the method further comprises: provisioning storage of the data storage system in accordance with said storage configuration information; selecting a data protection service in accordance with said storage configuration information, said selecting including determining an appropriate RAID protection level; and migrating data from said local storage to the storage provisioned in said provisioning.