Patent ID: 8065398

Claim:
A system comprising: a storage server including a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory containing executable instructions to cause the processor to perform operations comprising: determining, without user interaction, whether operation configuration information is available in response to the storage server being powered up, wherein the operation configuration information includes at least installed storage media information, storage volume information, and network communication information, initializing the storage server in accordance with the operation configuration information if the operation configuration information is available, examining a hardware configuration to determine an available mass storage device to store data and constructs a storage volume on the available mass storage device if the operation configuration information is not available, wherein the storage volume is accessible by a storage protocol identified by the storage server, wherein the hardware configuration specifies the available mass storage device to store data to, and wherein the storage protocol is identified by at least one of network sniffing and network snooping, and obtaining a network address in accordance with a network connection of the storage server; and a configuration wizard to update the operation configuration information of the storage server in accordance with at least one application-level setup parameter, wherein the configuration wizard automatically prepares a consistent configuration constellation for the storage server in accordance with the at least one application-level setup parameter, and wherein the consistent configuration constellation does not correspond directly to the at least one application-level setup parameter, wherein the application-level setup parameter describes a function of an application being configured on the storage server.