Patent ID: 7774445

Claim:
A method of enabling a user to manage zoning in a storage area network (SAN), the SAN having a plurality of zone sets, each zone set including a respective plurality of zones, each zone defining an access-control grouping of a respective host computer and one or more respective storage devices of the SAN, each zone set when active in the SAN being enforced by switches in the SAN such that the host computer of each zone of the zone set is allowed to access the storage devices of the same zone and not allowed to access storage devices of other zones of the zone set, the method comprising: (1) comparing a first zone set and a second zone set to identify differences therebetween, the differences including (a) zones in the first zone set but not in the second zone set, and (b) zones in the second zone set but not in the first zone set; (2) displaying a zone comparison user interface (UI) window on a display of a SAN management computer system, the zone comparison UI window including a differences display area operative to display zone set differences, the differences display area including respective fields for identifying (a) a type of zone difference, (b) a zone identifier, and (c) respective identifiers of host computers and storage devices constituting the contents of a zone; (3) based on the differences identified between the first and second zone sets, (a) displaying, in the differences display area, respective identifiers of those zones of the first and second zone sets having a predetermined difference type, and (b) displaying, in the differences display area for each zone having the predetermined difference type, (i) respective identifiers of the host computers and storage devices of the zone, and (ii) a difference type indicator indicating which of the difference types applies to the zone; wherein displaying the difference type indicator includes displaying an icon indicating which of the difference types applies to the zone; and wherein the zone comparison user interface window is displayed in response to receiving a selection of a zoning-related object from objects of the SAN displayed at multiple hierarchical levels including a fabric level and a zone set level.