Patent ID: 7725675

Claim:
A capacity monitoring method used for a computer system, the computer system comprising: at least one application computer including a processor, a memory, and an interface; at least one storage system coupled to the application computer; and a management computer including a processor, a memory, and an interface, which is allowed to access the application computer and the storage system, the storage system comprising: a physical disk for storing therein data which is required to be written by the application computer; and a disk controller for controlling an input/output of data to the physical disk, the physical disk including a storage area belonging to a storage pool, the capacity monitoring method comprising: providing, by the storage system, to the application computer at least one volume to which data is required to be written from the application computer; executing, by the application computer, at least one application program which requests to read/write data from/to the volume; allocating, by one of the management computer and the storage system, a part or entirety of the storage area belonging to the storage pool to the volume; monitoring, by the management computer, a used capacity of the storage pool corresponding to a capacity of a storage area which is allocated to the volume within the storage area belonging to the storage pool, and an unused capacity of the storage pool corresponding to a capacity of a storage area which is not allocated to the volume within the storage area belonging to the storage pool; judging, by the management computer, whether or not a storage capacity required for operating the application computer for a predetermined time period is present in the storage pool based upon an increasing speed of the used capacity of the storage pool to be monitored, and the unused capacity of the storage pool to be monitored; executing, by the management computer, a predetermined process operation in the case where the storage capacity required for operating the application computer for the predetermined time period is not present in the storage pool, determining whether a capacity consumption speed prediction value of one of the application programs is larger than an abnormal operation threshold value, specifying, by the management computer, in the predetermined process operation, that said one of the application programs is operated under an abnormal condition, based on a determination that the capacity consumption speed prediction value of the application program is larger than the abnormal operation threshold value, among the application programs executed by the application computer; and instructing, by the management computer, the application computer to suspend the operation of the specified application program.