Managing storage pool provisioning

A method for use in managing storage pool provisioning, the method comprising:

• configuring one or more physical devices of a data storage system for use in connection with provisioning a storage pool;
• providing one or more user interfaces for the data storage system, each user interface providing a different level of abstraction of the data storage system based on a different level of user proficiency associated with each user interface;
• receiving a provisioning specification describing a RAID type and capacity, wherein the provisioning specification varies in accordance with a selected user interface;
• receiving a rule describing one or more sets of data storage system best practices, each of said one or more sets specifying data storage system best practices for a different type of data storage system including a first type associated with the data storage system;
• and
• performing configuration processing in connection with initialization of said data storage system to configure a first portion of said one or more physical devices for use with the storage pool, wherein a rules engine and best practices for said first type of data storage system specified in said rule are used in performing said configuration processing.