Patent ID: 7480717

Claim:
A computer implemented method, in a data processing system, of identifying a maximum throughput of one or more components of a storage area network (SAN), the computer implemented method comprising: distributing testing software to a plurality of server computing devices coupled to the SAN; instructing the distributed testing software on the plurality of servers to generate and transmit portions of one or more test loadings to the one or more components of the SAN operating in actual configuration when deployed, wherein the one or more test loadings includes at least one of single channel specific test loadings, large block data read and write test loadings, small block data read and write test loadings, and multichannel multifunction test loadings; generating increasing levels of calibrated data rates for the SAN; transmitting the one or more test loadings to the one or more components of the SAN; measuring a response from the one or more components of the SAN to thereby generate response data, wherein each server computing device in the plurality of server computing devices receives the response data corresponding to a portion of the one or more test loadings the each server computing device respectively transmitted; compiling the response data from all of the plurality of server computing devices coupled to the SAN, wherein one server computing device in the plurality of server computing devices compiles the response data; providing the response data from the one server computing device to another server computing device in the plurality of server computing devices, wherein the another server computing device has an artificial intelligence engine to analyze the response data and to generate results of the analysis; analyzing the response data to identify the maximum throughput of the one or more components of the SAN, wherein an analysis is formed; determining an actual maximum sustainable data rate for the one or more components of the SAN; providing results of the analysis to a presentation user interface engine present on one of the plurality of server computing devices; presenting the results to a user via the presentation user interface engine, wherein the results include information identifying data rate characteristics of the SAN as a whole and individual components within the SAN; identifying resources for each tier of the SAN; and determining, for the each tier, an amount of the resources and a storage space needed to generate the one or more test loadings for the SAN.