Patent ID: 7904744

Claim:
A storage system comprising: a plurality of storage apparatuses; one or more switch devices to which the plurality of storage apparatuses are connected; and a controller that includes a command issuing unit for issuing a second protocol command to a target switch device from the one or more switch devices, wherein the second protocol command is defined according to a second protocol, the second protocol command corresponds to a first protocol command that is defined according to a first protocol, the first protocol is a protocol in which a connection that is established for transmitting a command to a target remains established during processing of the command by the target, and the second protocol is a protocol in which a connection that is established for transmitting a command to a target is broken during processing of the command by the target, wherein the first protocol command is a command for requesting the discovery of information relating to a device connected to a port of the target switch device, and wherein the target switch device has a command processing unit for interpreting and processing the second protocol command, and when the command processing unit detects the second protocol command, the command processing unit creates a discovery response that includes a plurality of port information elements corresponding respectively to all of a plurality of ports in the target switch device, and transmits the discovery response to the command issuing unit.