A storage system including a memory unit having a disk management program,
plural disk controllers each having a SAS port which can be attached to
either a SAS disk drive or a SATA disk drive, and a LAN port which
communicates with a user interface program in a management console. Upon
receiving a request from the user interface program requesting what kinds
of disk drives are attached to the disk controllers, the disk management
program communicates with each disk controller to determine what kind of
disk drive is attached to the disk controller, selects based on a result
an appropriate protocol for the disk drive, sends a request to the disk
controller to retrieve detailed information of the disk drive using the
selected protocol, and sends the detailed information received from the
disk controller back to the user interface program for display on a
monitor of the management console