Patent ID: 7346685

Claim:
A method of controlling storage management operation of a plurality of storage systems connected to a network in response to operation requests from users of a storage management system which is connected to said network, each of said storage systems being related to at least one of a plurality of host computers, said method comprising the steps of: executing an application program on each said host computer whereby each said host computer accesses a particular related volume on a particular related storage system; determining whether an operation request received from a user of said storage management system is related to management of a storage system of said plurality of storage systems; if said operation request is related to management of a particular said storage system, determining whether said operation request is a restricted operation request directed to changing an ability of a particular one of said host computers to access the particular volume on the particular storage system with which the particular host computer is related; if said operation request is said restricted operation request, determining a restricted time period during which execution of said operation request is not permitted, said restricted time period corresponding to when the application program is in use on said particular host computer; and when a comparison of said restricted time period with the current time shows that said application program is in use, rejecting execution of said operation request.