Patent ID: 7243144

Claim:
A system for managing a plurality of internet protocol network functions and a plurality of storage area network functions comprising: a local storage management server configured to collect device and topology information from a plurality of devices being managed by the local storage management server, the plurality of devices including a plurality of internet protocol network elements and a plurality of storage elements; and a global storage management server configured to receive the device and topology information from the local storage management server and display the device and topology information for viewing and management purposes, the device and topology information being displayed by the global storage management server in at least: a physical connection view which displays only information relating to physical connections among the internet protocol network elements and the plurality of storage elements; a domain view which displays only information relating to logical connections interconnecting selected ones of the plurality of internet protocol network elements; a zone view which displays only information relating to a logical connection interconnecting selected ones of the plurality of storage elements; a communication view which displays only information about TCP connections between pairs of internet protocol network elements and storage elements, wherein a TCP connections is a connection between two elements tat communicate using TCP; and a session view which displays only information about internet protocol network elements and storage elements that have ongoing communications activity, wherein the local storage management server communicates with the global storage management server to forward the device and topology information via a computer network, wherein the internet protocol network elements are exclusive of the storage elements, wherein the storage elements are exclusive of the internet protocol network elements.