Patent ID: 7426212

Claim:
A network system comprising: a plurality of Storage Area Networks (SANs) interconnected by an Internet Protocol (IP) network, each of the SANs has at least a server and at least a storage device; a SAN virtual group setting device for limiting communications between the server and the storage device in the SANs in accordance with an identifier for identifying a virtual group in the SANs; an IP virtual group setting device for limiting communications between the virtual group in the SANs and a virtual group in the IP network in accordance with an identifier for identifying the virtual group in the IP network; and a virtual group conversion device for, when information including the identifier for identifying the virtual group in the IP network is received from the IP network, converting the received identifier into the identifier for identifying the virtual group in the SANs and transmitting the converted identifier to the SAN virtual group setting device, and when information including the identifier for identifying the virtual group in the SANs is received from one of the SANs, converting the received identifier into the identifier for identifying the virtual group in the IP network and transmitting the converted identifier to the IP virtual group setting device.