Patent ID: 7454437

Claim:
A method to support generation of zone names in a storage area network, the method comprising: receiving a command initiating creation of a zone naming policy for generating zone names in the storage area network; receiving selection of at least one format element to be used in the zone naming policy, the at least one format element identifying which corresponding at least one type of characteristic associated with a given zone in the storage area network shall be used to automatically generate a respective zone name for the given zone; configuring the zone naming policy to specify creation of the respective zone name based on a combination of text characters selected from a first resource name associated with a first resource in the given zone and text characters selected from a second resource name associated with a second resource in the given zone, the respective zone name for the given zone including text characters from the first resource name and text characters from the second resource name to indicate a logical path in the storage area network for communicating between the first resource and the second resource; and storing the zone naming policy; the method further comprising: receiving a selection of ports in the storage area network that are associated with the given zone; identifying resources in the storage area network to which the ports are attached; identifying resource names associated with the identified resources; and based on the resource names associated with the resources and the selection of the at least one format element, generating a respective zone name associated with the given zone by combining at least portions of the resource names.