Server image capacity optimization

A method of server image provisioning in a system which includes a plurality of storage systems, a plurality of host systems, and a network, each of the storage systems being connected via the network to one of the host systems, respectively, the plurality of storage systems being connected to each other via the network, the plurality of storage systems including a first storage system which has a real gold image and a snapshot volume created based on the real gold image, the method comprising:

• monitoring a workload of each block of a plurality of blocks of the snapshot volume in the first storage system;
• upon detecting that the workload of a block of the snapshot volume exceeds a preset threshold, creating a chunk in the snapshot volume to allocate data to be copied from the real gold image;
• and
• copying data, from a chunk in the real gold image containing a block which corresponds to the detected block in the snapshot volume, to the created chunk in the snapshot volume as a replicated chunk.

A server image provisioning system comprising:

• a plurality of storage systems;
• a plurality of host systems;
• a network, each of the storage systems being connected via the network to one of the host systems, respectively, the plurality of storage systems being connected to each other via the network;
• and
• a management computer connected to the network;
• wherein the management computer checks whether a gold image exists in a first storage system of the plurality of storage systems, the gold image being one of a real gold image or a virtual gold image;
• wherein, if no gold image exists in the first storage system, the management computer searches a remainder of the storage systems until a real gold image is found in a second storage system of the plurality of storage systems;
• wherein, after the real gold image in the second storage system is found, the first storage system creates a virtual gold image in the first storage system, the virtual gold image in the first storage system being associated with the real gold image in the second storage system;
• and
• wherein the first storage system creates a snapshot volume in the first storage system based on the virtual gold image.