A storage area network (SAN) has one or more host digital data processors are
coupled
to one or more storage devices (e.g., LUNs) by an interconnect, e.g., a fiber channel-based
fabric. Switches or switch-like interfaces on the interconnect fabric define zones
or regions in which certain hosts can access certain storage devices, but not other
storage devices. Scanners, e.g., operating within agents associated with the hosts,
collect information regarding the regions and, more particularly, the hosts, storage
devices and interconnect elements that make them up. A manager operating, for example,
on a further digital data processor disambiguates information from the regions
and discerns the topology of the portion of the SAN spanned by the regions. Thus,
it identifies as a virtual SAN elements from regions that have at least one common
storage device with at least one other region.
