Patent ID: 7487328

Claim:
A storage apparatus comprising: a storage unit; and a controller coupled to said storage unit, wherein control of inputting/outputting data from/to a device provided in said storage unit is executed in accordance with a request received by said storage apparatus, wherein an actual device of the storage apparatus corresponds to a virtual device which is external to said storage apparatus, and wherein said controller performs: a process for mapping an actual device address corresponding to a virtual device address of said virtual device, in accordance with a specification of the actual device to be mounted or unmounted to correspond to said virtual device, and storing and retaining mapping information obtained from the mapping in a first table; and a data input/output process for receiving, an access request for data input/output in which said virtual device address is specified, obtaining the actual device address mapped to said specified virtual device address in said first table, and accessing the actual device by said obtained actual device address, wherein said controller performs a mounting process corresponding to a mounting request received by said storage apparatus including the specification of the virtual device address, and an unmounting process corresponding to an unmounting request received by said storage apparatus including the specification of said virtual device address, wherein said mounting process is a process for searching the actual device address corresponding to said specified virtual device address, and mapping said searched actual device address to said specified virtual device address in said first table, and, wherein said unmounting process is a process for nullifying the mapping of the actual device address to said specified virtual device address in said first table.