Patent ID: 7941598

Claim:
A data storage system comprising: a. a storage controller to manage at least one dynamic volume having chunks allocated from a pool according to a write request position and a chunk allocation status; b. at least one first storage area available for data storage and to be allocated to the pool; c. at least one second storage area not available for data storage and secured by a key; d. a networking interface to communicate with a storage on demand management system, wherein: i. the storage controller is to issue a storage area addition request to the storage on demand management system when a number of unused chunks in the pool falls below a predetermined threshold, ii. the storage controller is to receive from the storage on demand management system the key and use the received key to cause the at least one second storage area to become available for data storage, iii. the storage controller is to establish relations between the pool and the second storage area, iv. the storage controller is to divide the second storage area into chunks, v. the storage controller is to allocate the chunks in the second storage area to the dynamic volume; and vi. the storage controller is to unmount the dynamic volume if the dynamic volume does not have chunks with data; wherein the second storage area is a hard disk drive; and wherein if the dynamic volume does not have chunks with data, the storage controller issues a request to the storage on demand management system such that the received key is withdrawn.