STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME

摘要

A storage system comprising a storage apparatus having a storage control unit communicatively coupled to an external apparatus, forming a plurality of virtual storage areas each serving as a unit storage area used by the external apparatus as a data storing area, using a unit logical storage area selected among a plurality of unit logical storage areas provided by a physical storage medium, linking to each of the virtual storage areas, and any one of a plurality of attributes each representing a storage state of data stored in the virtual storage area, and maintaining the link wherein the storage control unit 11 further includes a logical storage area management unit 1140 that manages the link of the virtual storage area and any one of the attributes to each of logical storage area groups each configured to include the unit logical storage area to maintain the link and manage the linking relation, wherein the logical storage area management unit 1140, when receiving a command to change an attribute of any one of the virtual storage areas to a different attribute, determines presence or absence of the unit logical storage area that belongs to the logical storage area group linked to the changed different attribute and that is not yet allocated to any one of the virtual storage areas, and when determining the presence of the unit logical storage area that is not yet allocated to any one of the virtual storage areas, the logical storage area management unit 1140 links the unit logical storage area determined to be present to the virtual storage area, reads out data stored in the unit logical storage area linked to a virtual storage area subjected to the attribute change, and stores the read data in the unit logical storage area determined to be present in accordance with a storage state represented by the different attribute.