Patent ID: 7693876

Claim:
A method for monitoring a usage change rate of a storage container connected to a storage server, comprising the steps of: obtaining, by the storage server, a current space usage value for the storage container; calculating, by the storage server, the usage change rate of the storage container, wherein the usage change rate is determined based on a difference between the current space usage value and a prior space usage value; determining, by the storage server, whether the usage change rate of the storage container is within a predetermined range, the predetermined range being based on a representative sample of prior space usage values and a difference from the representative sample, wherein the representative sample is a mean of a predetermined number of prior space usage values, wherein the difference from the representative sample is a standard deviation of the predetermined number of prior space usage values, and wherein the predetermined range is further based on a usage change rate sensitivity value; generating, by the storage server, a current status indicator based on the usage change rate, wherein the current status indicator is an in-range status indicator if the usage change rate is within the predetermined range, and wherein the current status indicator is an out-of-range status indicator if the usage change rate is outside of the predetermined range; comparing, by the storage server, the current status indicator with a previous status indicator; generating, by the storage server, an alert if the current status indicator is different from the previous status indicator.