Patent ID: 7987466

Claim:
A storage system comprising: a plurality of memory devices configuring a plurality of logical units; a processor managing a plurality of files stored in the respective logical units, and monitoring an input/output load for each of the logical units; a memory storing a file management table for managing a file management priority for each of the logical units, the input/output load for each of the logical units, and a file management execution ranking for each of the logical units; one or more block input/output interfaces; and one or more file input/output interfaces, wherein the file management execution ranking indicates an order of managing the files stored in the plurality of logical units and is based on the file management priority and the input/output load for each of the logical units, wherein the processor determines whether the input/output load of each of the logical units exceeds a predetermined threshold, and determines the file management execution ranking, wherein the file management execution ranking is determined by ranking the logical units in order of the file management priority, and then further ranking the plurality of logical units based on the input/output load of each of the plurality of logical units, such that the file management execution ranking of each of the plurality of first logical units having input/output loads that do not exceed the predetermined threshold is ranked at a higher priority over the file management execution ranking of each of the plurality of second logical units having input/output loads that do exceed the predetermined threshold, wherein the processor executes managing the files stored in the logical units in order of the determined file management execution ranking, wherein one or more of the logical units are provided to a SAN (Storage Area Network) client via the one or more block I/O interfaces, and another or more of the logical units are provided to a NAS (Network Attached Storage) client via the one or more file I/O interfaces, and wherein, if the load in one of the one or more file I/O interfaces reaches or exceeds a predetermined threshold, the one file I/O interface mounts the logical units via another of the one or more file input/output interfaces or the one or more block input/output interfaces, and controls managing of the files.