Patent ID: 7162575

Claim:
A method comprising: determining that a first storage device of a plurality of storage devices does not inherently provide a capability for a logical volume; configuring the first storage device to provide the capability; selecting the first storage device as one of a selected set of storage devices of the plurality of storage devices, wherein each storage device in the selected set of storage devices has been selected to provide storage for the logical volume; when the selected set of storage devices does not provide all of a capacity requested for the logical volume, selecting a set of remaining storage devices of the plurality of storage devices to provide the capability and a remaining portion of the capacity for the logical volume; when at least one storage device of the set of remaining storage devices does not inherently provide the capability, configuring the at least one storage device of the set of remaining storage devices to provide the capability for the logical volume; adding the set of remaining storage devices to the selected set of storage devices to implement the logical volume; and executing at least one command to implement the logical volume using the selected set of storage devices.