Patent ID: 8281090

Claim:
A method for selecting a spare physical storage device to use in a data storage virtualization subsystem comprising a plurality of normally-used physical storage devices, the method comprising the steps of: defining at least one section of the plurality of normally-used physical storage devices as a logical media unit; defining at least one of the plurality of normally-used physical storage devices as a physical storage device pool according to a pool ID for identifying the physical storage device pool; providing a pool spare physical storage device designated to said physical storage device pool and providing at least one non-pool spare physical storage device; selecting the pool spare physical storage device as a spare physical storage device for replacing one of the plurality of normally-used physical storage devices in the physical storage device pool when the one of the plurality of normally-used physical storage devices is to be replaced, if the pool spare physical storage device is available, wherein the pool spare physical storage device is used as a spare physical storage device for the physical storage device pool; and selecting the at least one non-pool spare physical storage device as a spare physical storage device for replacing the one of plurality of normally-used physical storage devices in the physical storage device pool when the one of the plurality of normally-used physical storage devices is to be replaced, if the pool spare physical storage device is not available.