Patent ID: 7383410

Claim:
A method comprising: in response to a request to configure a logical volume to have a requested capability, selecting a set of rules from a database, wherein the database comprises rules and a set of predefined capabilities, each predefined capability is associated with one or more rules and comprises a name describing the predefined capability, a description of the predefined capability, a list of other predefined capabilities the predefined capability extends if any, and a list of variables associated with the predefined capability if any, the set of predefined capabilities comprises a predefined capability corresponding to the requested capability, said selecting is based upon which rules in the database are associated with the predefined capability corresponding to the requested capability, each rule in the set of rules selected conforms to a language for expressing storage allocation requirements, and at least one rule of the set of rules selected corresponds to a set of commands to configure a set of storage devices to provide the logical volume with the requested capability; and processing the set of rules selected to produce the set of commands to configure the set of storage devices to provide the logical volume with the requested capability, wherein the processing comprises producing a logical volume configuration for the logical volume using available storage information and the set of rules selected, the logical volume configuration specifies an arrangement of a plurality of components of the logical volume, and the components are configured using the set of storage devices.