The invention provides a storage area network (SAN) of type having one or more digital data processors coupled to one or more storage devices. At least a selected one of the hosts includes a file system that effects access by the host to assigned storage devices. This can be, for example, a conventional AIX or other host platform file system that oversees file and other data accesses between the host and those assigned devices. That host can be associated, according to these aspects of the invention, with lower and upper capacity bounds for purposes of file system extension. In response to a request by (or on behalf of) the selected digital data processor for extension of the file system, the manager assigns one of more further storage devices to that digital data processor.
Collecting data for a storage area network includes providing a plurality of agents that collect data from objects of the storage area network, providing a plurality of data collection policies, where each of the policies indicates a type of data to be collected and a frequency of collection, and applying the policies to the agents, where the agents collect data according to the type of data and the frequencies indicated by the data collection policies. At least one of the agents may have a plurality of data collection policies applied thereto to cause the at least one agent to collect the types of data at the frequencies indicated by the merge of all of the data collection policies applied to the at least one agent. Merging the data collection policies may be performed by the at least one of the agents that receives the data collection policies or may be performed by an entity other than the at least one of the agents.
An agent in a storage area network communicates with a management entity in the storage area network to discover a group of resources in the storage area network controlled by the management entity. In response to discovering the group of resources, the agent associates member resources (e.g., and their respective names) of the group of resources to a corresponding group identifier to which the member resources belong. The agent reports i) the corresponding group identifier and ii) the member resources of the group of resources controlled by the management entity to a management control center that assigns one of multiple agents in the storage area network to manage the group of resources based on communications with the management entity. After a step of assigning, the management control center can initiate an assigned agent to control the group of resources.
A method of, and a system for, controlling attributes of a group of storage devices presents to a user a set attribute choices for one or more groups of storage devices. The user interacts with the presentation of the set of attribute choices to choose attributes for the group. In response to selection of attribute choices, the system verifies the selected attribute choices. The system automatically applies the verified selected attributes to the group.
A network topology management system includes information processing units, storage units, connection units that control connection switching between the information processing units and the storage units, a management unit that manages a network topology consisting of the information processing units, the storage units and the connection units, and an emulator connected to the connection units and to the management unit of the network. The emulator comprises a conversion section that converts first equipment identification information that identifies the information processing units or the storage units into second equipment identification information that is recognizable by the management unit to identify the information processing units or the storage units, and a transmitting section that sends the second equipment identification information to the management unit. The management device has a control section that manages the network topology based on the second equipment identification information.
A method of, and a system for, controlling attributes of a group of storage devices presents to a user a set attribute choices for one or more groups of storage devices. The user interacts with the presentation of the set of attribute choices to choose attributes for the group. In response to selection of attribute choices, the system verifies the selected attribute choices. The system automatically applies the verified selected attributes to the group.
