Patent ID: 7539836

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for generating a new non-physical data storage object, the method comprising: transmitting a message from a management server to a storage server, the message including a request to identify one or more existing non-physical data storage objects, the one or more non-physical data storage objects for display to a user via a graphical user interface; receiving, at the management server, a response from the storage server identifying the one or more existing non-physical data storage objects at the storage server; displaying, at the management server, via a graphical user interface, information identifying the one or more existing non-physical data storage objects; receiving, at the management server, a user-generated command representing a selection of an existing non-physical data storage object displayed among the one or more existing non-physical data storage objects, said command identifying a particular existing non-physical data storage object; responsive to receiving the user-generated command via the graphical user interface, initiating, at the management server, analyzer logic to extract one or more values associated with one or more configuration parameters of said particular existing non-physical data storage object identified in the user-generated command; responsive to receiving the user-generated command via the graphical user interface, initiating, at the management server, configuration logic to transmit an instruction to the storage server to cause the storage server to generate the new non-physical data storage object; and responsive to receiving the instruction, automatically generating, at the storage server, the new non-physical data storage object as a virtual storage container using each value extracted from said particular existing non-physical data storage object as the default value for the corresponding configuration parameter of the new non-physical data storage object; wherein the virtual storage container is created as a portion of an aggregate of multiple RAID (redundant array of independent disks) groups, the virtual storage container including storage from more than one of the multiple RAID groups, the virtual storage container having flexible characteristics allowing for changes to a total data storage size of the virtual storage container.