Patent ID: 7016985

Claim:
A method for managing Input/Output (I/O) requests generated by an application program to transmit to a storage device comprised of at least one logical volume and wherein the I/O request is directed toward one logical volume in the storage device, wherein transmitting the I/O requests comprises: providing a data structure capable of associating one or more of the logical volumes with a first or second priority; processing one I/O request to determine whether to transmit the I/O request to a component or to defer the I/O request; determining from the data structure whether the logical volume of the processed I/O request is associated with the first priority or second priority in response to processing the I/O request; transmitting the processed I/O request to the component if the determined priority is the first priority; and deferring transmittal of the processed I/O request to the component if the determined priority is the second priority.