Patent ID: 8250329

Claim:
A method for processing write requests from one or more host computers in relation to a thin provisioning storage subsystem, comprising: receiving a write request from a host computer, the write request identifying a first virtual disk that has been previously assigned to the host computer; determining whether the first virtual disk has to be allocated additional physical storage locations of the thin provisioning storage subsystem for storing data associated with the write request; in response to determining that the first virtual disk has to be allocated additional physical storage locations of the thin provisioning storage subsystem, determining a quantity of free space remaining unallocated within physical storage locations of the thin provisioning storage subsystem; where the quantity of free space remaining unallocated within the physical storage locations of the thin provisioning storage subsystem satisfies a policy threshold corresponding to a second virtual disk, write-inhibiting the second virtual disk, wherein each virtual disk of a plurality virtual disks, including the first virtual disk and the second virtual disk, is assigned a policy threshold, the policy threshold assigned to each virtual disk having a different threshold percentage indicating that the virtual disk is to be write-inhibited when the quantity of free space remaining unallocated within the physical storage locations of the thin provisioning storage subsystem decreases below the different threshold percentage.