Patent ID: 8631111

Claim:
A method of selecting an interface from a plurality of interfaces in a storage subsystem for processing storage operations received by the storage subsystem, by a selector in a management server coupled with the storage subsystem via a network, the plurality of interfaces including a queue interface for queue storage operations and a batch interface for batch storage operations, each interface being associated with a corresponding processor of a plurality of processors in the storage subsystem, the management server having a plurality of providers, including a first provider configured to execute storage operations on a first processor via the batch interface and a second provider configured to execute storage operations on a second processor via the queue interface, the method comprising: collecting information on status of the first provider and the second provider; based on the status of the first provider and the second provider, determining an operational characteristic of operation time as a function of a number of operational units for each provider; comparing the operational characteristics of the providers; for a given number of operational units in the received storage operations to be processed, selecting the first provider or the second provider which has the lowest operation time for the given number of operational units; if the first provider is selected, executing the received storage operations via the batch interface by a first processor; and if the second provider is selected, executing the received storage operations via the queue interface by a second processor; wherein the first provider is a batch provider and the first processor is a service processor; wherein the status of the batch provider depends on whether the service processor operates under normal mode, refresh mode, or updating mode; wherein the refresh mode requires more operation time than the normal mode, for uploading configuration stored in a memory of the storage subsystem to the first provider and downloading the configuration from the first provider to the memory after modifying the configuration based on the received storage operations; and wherein the updating mode requires less operation time than the normal mode, for downloading the configuration from the first provider to the memory after modifying the configuration without need to upload configuration stored in the memory of the storage subsystem to the first provider.