Patent ID: 8074020

Claim:
A storage subsystem, comprising: a consolidation volume for storing data related to a plurality of logical unit (LUN) devices corresponding to separate physical devices accessed by a host and operating system according to device-ID'S, wherein each has an offset location within the consolidation volume; a trap mechanism for intercepting calls by said device-ID'S from said host and operating system; a map to convert said calls to a LUN device into a corresponding offset in the consolidated volume; a driver for accessing the consolidated volume with said corresponding offset to transfer data associated with a particular LUN device; a mechanism for consolidating and redirecting host requests for an original LUN ID into an offset to a consolidated LUN; a device ID for host requests access from a OS device; a mapping device ID to a SCSI target and a LUN ID in a disk device driver; a request for sending to a storage subsystem that includes a LUN; and a device for recognizing that said LUN ID is one that was previously consolidated, wherein, said LUN devices can be consolidated and reconsolidated to a single physical volume and other physical volumes without requiring changes to said operating system or application software.