Patent ID: 8677067

Claim:
A storage system comprising: at least one storage apparatus being communicatively coupled to a host computer through an input/output (I/O) network, and being configured to perform an I/O process for a storage drive in response to an I/O request sent from the host computer; the at least one storage apparatus has a logical device (LDEV) of another storage apparatus externally coupled thereto, and the storage system including the another storage apparatus; the at least one storage apparatus including at least one management device each being an information processor and communicatively coupled to constituent elements of the at least one storage apparatus, at least two management devices being communicatively coupled to each other through a management network, the at least one management device including a management device virtualization mechanism for implementing at least one virtual management device being a virtual object based on resources of the at least two management devices, wherein the at least one virtual management device provides a maintenance environment for the constituent elements of the at least one storage apparatus, to a maintenance apparatus as an information processor accessing the at least one virtual management device through the management network; and the at least one management device includes a mapping management table, and the mapping management table manages relations between LDEVs managed by management devices and storage apparatuses that provide the LDEVs; wherein when a target storage drive of a target LDEV provided by the another storage apparatus externally coupled to the at least one storage apparatus is replaced, the at least one management device is configured to: receive a request to replace; and notify the target LDEV to another management device of the another storage apparatus, wherein when the another management device is notified of the target LDEV, the another management device is configured to: replicate, if a target redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) group providing the target LDEV includes another LDEV, contents on the another LDEV to different RAID group from the target RAID group; and update the mapping management table, and wherein when the target storage drive is replaced, the at least one management device is configured to: block the target RAID group; release the target RAID group, after replacement of the target storage drive; and perform an operation of recovery of the target storage drive.