Patent ID: 7028085

Claim:
An accounting system comprising: a plurality of host computers; an accounting server in data communication with said host computers; a storage control device having a plurality of channel ports for receiving data input/output operations from said host computers, said storage control device in data communication with said accounting server; storage devices operative with said storage control device to store data received from said host computers and to retrieve data for transmission to said host computers; accounting data generating means for generating accounting data based on at least a number of times of access or a data transfer quantity for each of one or more accounting subject control units; and transfer means for informing said accounting server of said accounting data generated by said accounting data generating means, wherein for each said accounting subject control unit, accounting data is generated using metered accounting if an upper limit value for either the number of accesses per unit of time or for the quantity of data transferred per unit of time is not set, wherein for each said accounting subject control unit, if said upper limit value is set, then accounting data is generated using fixed accounting when said upper limit value has not been exceeded, wherein for each said accounting subject control unit, if said upper limit value is set and an access limit for the number of accesses is not set, then accounting data is generated using metered accounting when that upper limit value has been exceeded, wherein for each said accounting subject control unit, if said upper limit value is set and said access limit is set, then accounting data is generated using fixed accounting.