Patent ID: 7913300

Claim:
A method comprising: operating a network server which communicates with a storage server through a network, wherein the network server includes a management application for controlling management tasks associated with the storage server; using the network server to proxy requests to access a plurality of APIs of the storage server, the requests being from a client application which is external to the storage server and the network server, wherein using the network server to proxy a request to access a given API of the plurality of APIs includes: in the network server, storing a set of access privileges for a plurality of users, including a user of the client application; receiving from the client application a first API call for accessing the given API of the storage server, the first API call having associated therewith a first set of security credentials not associated with the storage server; based on the first set of security credentials, determining whether the user of the client application is authorized to access the management application of the network server; if the user is an authorized user of the management application, then using the network server to look up a second set of security credentials associated with the storage server, and sending a second API call, for accessing the given API to the storage server with the second set of security credentials; receiving a result of executing the given API from the storage server; looking up a set of access privileges associated with the user of the client application; filtering the result of executing the given API based on the set of access privileges associated with the user of the client application; and providing the filtered result to the client application as a response to the first API call; and using the network server to provide access to a selected subset of the plurality of APIs of the storage server based on a role associated with the client application.