Patent ID: 8555014

Claim:
A method for use in a computer system comprising a plurality of client computers and at least one storage system, the method comprising: receiving a first request for performance of a first task on the at least one storage system and a second request for performance of a second task on the at least one storage system; scheduling, at a controller, subsets of the plurality of clients to access at least one resource of the at least one storage system in order to service the first request and the second request prior to performing the first task and the second task, respectively, of the first request and the second request, wherein the scheduling includes: in response to the first request, the controller selecting a first subset of the plurality of clients to access the at least one resource of the at least one storage system to perform the first task, wherein the first subset of the plurality of clients includes more than one client; and in response to the second request, the controller selecting a second subset of the plurality of clients to access the at least one resource of the at least one storage system to perform the second task, wherein the second subset of the plurality of clients includes more than one client, wherein the first and second subsets are independently selected corresponding to requirements of the first and second tasks, and wherein the second subset of the plurality of clients cannot perform the second task simultaneously with the first subset of the plurality of clients performing the first task using the at least one storage system; automatically configuring the at least one storage system to provide the first subset of the plurality of clients access to the at least one resource to perform the first task according to the scheduling by the controller; after the first task is completed, automatically re-configuring the storage system so that at least one client of the first subset of the plurality of clients is no longer provided with access to the at least one resource according to the scheduling by the controller, wherein the at least one client of the first subset is not included in the second subset; automatically configuring the at least one storage system to provide the second subset of the plurality of clients access to the at least one resource to perform the second task according to the scheduling by the controller.