Patent ID: 7308481

Claim:
A network storage system for supplying a storage to a plurality of clients through a network, said system comprising: a first device provided with a disk device; and a second device for managing a connection to said plurality of clients and relaying an access request issued from a client to said disk device, wherein said first device allocates a portion of said disk device to said second device, wherein said second device divides said portion allocated by said first device into a plurality of portions, and allocates each of the plurality of portions to a respective one of each of said plurality of clients, wherein said second device is provided with means for translating a source network address of said client to a specific network address of the second device, the specific network address to be transferred to said first device, such that the means for translating translates each of a plurality of network addresses of each of said plurality of clients to the specific network address of the second device, and wherein said second device adds a preset name of said portion allocated by said first device to a file name included in said access request received from said client and transfers said file name along with said preset name to said first device.