Patent ID: 7814196

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a processor device in a computer, information indicating attributes associated with an unknown type of storage area network resource; performing a comparison of the information associated with the unknown type of storage area network resource and a set of characteristic information associated with corresponding known types of storage area network resources; and based on the comparison, mapping the unknown type of storage area network resource to at least one specific identifier of a corresponding known type of storage area network resource; wherein performing the comparison includes: utilizing a description of functional attributes associated with the unknown type of storage area network resource to identify an actual type associated with the unknown type of storage area network resource; and wherein utilizing the description of functional attributes further comprises: comparing the functional attributes associated with the unknown type of storage area network resource with a range of possible functional attributes associated with a given one of the corresponding known types of storage area network resources; and in response to detecting that the unknown storage area network resource has corresponding functional attributes outside the range of possible functional attributes associated with the given one of the corresponding known types of storage area network resources, eliminating a possibility that the unknown storage area network resource is a same type as the given one of the corresponding known storage area network resources.