Patent ID: 8751739

Claim:
A method of automatically allocating storage space for a first storage pool, comprising: providing at least one spares pool containing unused data devices, wherein the unused data devices of the at least one spares pool are available for use by any of a plurality of storage pools, including the first storage pool; providing a cloud appliance that presents the at least one spares pool and at least the first storage pool of the plurality of storage pools as available to at least one host, wherein the cloud appliance is coupled via a network to the at least one host and to at least one storage device including underlying physical memory on which data corresponding to used data devices is stored; determining when a write from the at least one host to available space of the first storage pool causes a predetermined threshold, corresponding to the available space of the first storage pool, to be exceeded; and moving, by configuration of the cloud appliance, at least one of the unused data devices from the at least one spares pool to the first storage pool in response to determining that the predetermined threshold is exceeded.