Patent ID: 8180872

Claim:
A storage area network (SAN), comprising: a plurality of heterogeneous SAN components coupled to a SAN fabric; a SAN management server configured to: obtain data from each of the plurality of SAN components for managing each of the plurality of SAN components, wherein the data from each of the SAN components conforms to a data model of the particular SAN component; convert the data from the one or more data models of the SAN components into canonical data conforming to a common data model of the SAN management server; and manage the heterogeneous SAN components using the canonical data, wherein said managing the heterogeneous SAN components comprises modifying at least one attribute of the heterogeneous SAN components; wherein to manage one of the heterogeneous SAN components, the SAN management server is configured to: modify a portion of the canonical data for a particular one of the plurality of heterogeneous SAN components; convert the portion of the canonical data from the common data model into a portion of data conforming to the data model of the particular SAN component; and send the portion of data to the particular SAN component to modify one or more attributes of the SAN component.