Patent ID: 7330957

Claim:
A storage system management method for managing a volume held by a storage system to store data, the storage system having user management information storing information on a volume that can be allocated by each user, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a volume allocation request including a user identifier and a computer identifier from an external system, wherein said volume allocation request further includes an allocation volume capacity; allocating, based on said volume allocation request, a volume to a computer corresponding to said computer identifier from an unallocated volume of said storage system that can be allocated by all the users; and registering the volume allocated in said user management information as a volume to be managed exclusively by a user corresponding to said user identifier, wherein said volume can be accessed only by said user and not by other users and wherein said management information further includes a maximum volume capacity that can be allocated by each user; receiving a volume release request with said user identifier and a volume of said user to be released, from an external system; releasing said volume to be released based on said volume release request and returning the released volume to an unallocated volume of said storage system that can be allocated by all the users; deleting said released volume from the volumes managed by the user of said user in said user management information; adding said allocation-requested volume capacity to a volume capacity calculated based on said user management information and thus far allocated by the user, and judging whether said sum is smaller or not than said maximum volume capacity of said user, wherein the user is able to access only volumes allocated by said user and cannot access the volumes allocated by other users; and executing said allocation process in a case where said sum is smaller than said maximum volume capacity, and not executing said allocation process in the case where said sum is larger than said maximum volume capacity.