MANAGING STORAGE RESOURCES ATTACHED TO A DATA NETWORK

摘要

A computer network includes multiple storage nodes (103a-106a) each having a physical storage resource (121a). A system management server (150) on the network (100) identifies the physical storage (121a) on the network (100) and collects it into a virtual storage pool (160). When an application (121) executing on a storage client accesses network storage, the system management server (150) allocates a segment of the virtual storage pool (160) to the application. The segment of the virtual storage pool (160) is stored on a physical storage (121a) resource on the network (100). The system management server monitors the application's use of the network storage and transparently and dynamically re-allocates the virtual segment to an optimal physical storage resource.