Patent ID: 7685269

Claim:
A storage area network (SAN), comprising: one or more host systems running a plurality of applications; a plurality of storage devices; a SAN fabric comprising a plurality of fabric components for coupling the one or more host systems to the storage devices; a system configured to implement a task group monitor for a plurality of tasks, wherein each task is scheduled by a corresponding one of the plurality of applications to execute on the SAN, and wherein the task group monitor is configured to: form a separate task group for each one of the plurality of tasks, such that each separate task group comprises a plurality of components selected from at least two of a host system, a storage device, and a SAN fabric component, wherein each component in the separate task group is designated to participate in performing the task for which the separate task group was formed; store information for each separate task group to identify the respective components and the respective task for each separate task group; monitor all of the components in all the separate task groups, wherein for each separate group, the components of the separate task group are monitored for a period of time in advance of the scheduled execution of the respective task in order to detect conditions affecting the scheduled execution of the respective task in advance of the scheduled execution of the respective task; and in response to detecting a condition pertaining to one of the monitored component: based on the stored information for the separate task groups, identify one or more of the tasks whose scheduled executions are affected by the detected condition in advance of the scheduled executions of the one or more tasks affected by the detected condition; and generate one or more alerts identifying the one or more tasks whose scheduled executions are affected by the detected condition in advance of the scheduled executions of the one or more tasks.