Patent ID: 7685628

Claim:
A method of managing a plurality of access paths in a computer system, the computer system comprising: a data storage system including a storage area and a plurality of data storage ports; a host computer coupled to the data storage system; an integrated management server for managing a state of the data storage system and a state of the host computer; and a data storage port license management server for managing data storage port license keys used for making the data storage ports available/unavailable and for generating port usage charges based on usage of the data storage ports, the plurality of access paths being set between the data storage system and the host computer, whereby the host computer can access the storage area, the method comprising: requesting the data storage port license management server to issue a data storage port license key for validating one of the data storage ports when the access path is set; sending the data storage port license key obtained in the requesting, to the data storage system in order to validate an unused data storage port that is currently unavailable among the data storage ports; receiving a notification of a change in an available/unavailable state of the unused data storage port from the data storage system; and creating an access path passing through the unused data storage port that has been made available with the data storage port license key upon the notification of the change in the available/unavailable state of the unused data storage port.