Patent ID: 7779118

Claim:
A method for performing an analysis on a Storage Area Network (SAN) system, containing a plurality of components, the method comprising the steps of: representing, in a computer, selected ones of the plurality of components and the relationship among the components, wherein the representation comprises the steps of: creating at least one non-specific representation, in a computer, of the selected components, wherein the non-specific representations are selected from the group consisting of: DiskPartition, DataPath, PowerPath_DataPath, PowerPathDevice, PowerPathChildDevice, DataPathRedundancyGroup, ScSiProtocolEndPoint, HostBusAdapter, StorageProcessorSystem, StorageProcessorRedundancyGroup, SCSITargetProtocolEndPoint, HardwarePort, NetworkPath, Portlink,NAS-Datamover_RedundancyGroup; NAS_ControlStation_RedundancyGroup, NAS-ControlStation, NAS_DataMover, NAS_FileSystem, NAS_System; and creating at least one non-specific representation, in a computer, of relations along which the events propagate amongst the selected components, wherein the representations of relations are selected from the group consisting of: BasedOnVolume, DiskPartitionBaseOnVolume; BasedOnDiskPartition, Part of/AllocatedVolume, AllocatedFromStoragePool, HostedStoragePool, ComposedOf, ExposedVia, ExposedStorageVolume, BasedOn, HostedBy, ResidesOnDiskPartition, MemberOf/LogicalDisk, AllocatedFromPool, Peer, LayeredOver, Enables, ConsistsOf, Part OfDomain, AccessedVia, and ControlledEntity; providing a mapping between a plurality of events and a plurality of observable events occurring among the components, wherein the mapping is represented as a value associating each event with each observable event; and performing the system analysis based on the mapping of events and observable events.