Patent ID: 8001355

Claim:
A storage system, comprising: a server apparatus for sending and receiving data sent from a client apparatus; a storage apparatus including a volume for storing the data; and a management apparatus for managing the storage apparatus; wherein the server apparatus comprises: a plurality of virtual server units for controlling the sending and receiving of the data independently for each prescribed client apparatus; wherein the storage apparatus comprises: a plurality of virtual storage units including the volume independently for each prescribed virtual server unit for storing the data; and wherein the management apparatus comprises: a virtual storage selection unit for selecting the virtual storage unit to be allocated to the virtual server unit according to a virtual storage search policy table for searching the virtual storage unit based on a parameter input by a user when a command is issued for allocating the volume to the virtual server unit; a volume selection unit for selecting the type of the volume to be allocated to the virtual storage unit allocated to the virtual server unit with the virtual storage allocation unit according to a volume type search policy table for searching the type of the volume based on the parameter; and a volume allocation unit for creating the volume selected with the volume selection unit based on the parameter and allocating the created volume to the virtual storage unit allocated to the virtual server unit with the virtual storage allocation unit, and wherein the virtual storage selection unit presents the virtual storage search policy table to the user for the user to select a search condition, searches for the virtual storage unit according to a conditional statement corresponding to the search condition, presents candidates of the virtual storage unit together with the status of the virtual storage unit to the user for the user to select the virtual storage unit, and selects the virtual storage unit to be allocated to the virtual server unit based on the selection input by the user.