System and method for interfacing with virtual storage

A method for facilitating management of virtual storage in a storage area network enabling a user can flexibly present a virtual disk to a host, comprising:

• connecting a host to a network storage controller (NSC) via a host agent capable of communicating command-response traffic with logical objects implemented in the network storage controller;
• creating a logical disk object representing a virtual storage container, wherein the logical disk is an abstract representation of physical storage capacity provided by plurality of physical stores;
• adding a storage protocol to the logical disk object using a derived disk object in response to a user protocol selection;
• associating the derived object with a host using a presented disk object referencing the host agent response to a user host selection;
• and
• creating a virtual disk object comprising the logical disk object, the derived disk object and the presented disk object.

A method for managing virtual storage in a storage area network, the method comprising:

• providing at least one network storage controller coupled to a plurality of physical disk drives implementing physical storage capacity;
• creating a physical store object representing each of the plurality of physical disk drives;
• specifying at least some of the plurality of physical disk drives for inclusion in a storage cell;
• verifying that sufficient physical store objects were specified to satisfy the requested device failure protection level before creating a storage cell object;
• and
• creating the storage cell object representing the storage cell wherein the physical store objects corresponding to the specified physical disk drives are included in the created storage cell.