Techniques for automated application discovery

A data storage system comprising code stored on a computer readable medium for performing automated discovery processing in a computer network, the computer readable storage medium comprising code stored thereon for:

• performing passive discovery processing including:
• monitoring, by a data storage system, transmissions sent over the network;
• identifying, by the data storage system in accordance with a plurality of different protocols, one or more data elements to be extracted from one or more messages included in the transmissions;
• extracting, by the data storage system, said one or more data elements from said one or more messages, said extracting including the data storage system extracting a first of said one or more data elements from a first message in accordance with at least a first protocol at an application layer, said first data element identifying an application which issued the first message;
• and
• determining, by the data storage system using said one or more data elements, first discovery information, said first discovery information including information identifying said application executing on a component in the network;
• and
• performing active discovery processing using said first discovery information, said active discovery processing including processing to obtain second discovery information regarding said application and said component identified by said first discovery information, wherein said automated discovery processing discovers current storage configuration information about local storage of said component used by said application and also discovers performance data regarding performance of said application with respect to said current storage configuration information, and wherein the method further comprises:
• provisioning storage of the data system in accordance with said storage configuration information and said performance data.