A storage virtualization environment is provided that includes a network
switch system for initializing a virtual volume in a system including a
host system, and storage devices. The network switch system includes
storage processors including first and second tier storage processors and
a Virtualization Coherency Manager (VCM) for receiving storage
connectivity identifying which storage processors are connected to
selected ones of the storage devices. Further, the network switch system
includes a master storage processor for creating a logical tree based on
the storage connectivity information, the logical tree reflecting a
virtual volume of data distributed across the storage devices and
includes (i) first tier objects representing partitions of the virtual
volume data and (ii) second tier objects representing a logical
configuration of the virtual volume. In one embodiment, the VCM assigns
the first tier objects to selective ones of the first tier storage
processors and assigns the second tier objects to selective ones of the
second tier storage processors based on the logical tree. Further, each
of the selective first and second tier storage processors initialize a
local portion of the virtual volume to allow the host system to access
the virtual volume through the network switch system.