Method and system for managing storage area networks

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

replacing a first driver with a second driver, the drivers executed by a computing system coupled to a peripheral device that is operationally coupled to one or more target devices in a storage area network, the first driver complying with a first protocol and the second driver complying with a second protocol, the first and second protocols being different,

obtaining identifier information for the target devices used by the first driver in a first format and complying with the first protocol;

converting the identifier information for the target devices from the first format supported by the first driver to a second format supported by the second driver the first format being different from the second format; and

automatically persistently binding the converted target device identifier information to a port of the peripheral device such that the second driver can use the persistently bound converted target device identifier information to communicate with the target devices via the port without having to manually enter target device identifier information in the second format; wherein the first driver is a SCSIport driver and the second driver is a STORport driver.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the peripheral device is a host bus adapter coupled to a host system in a storage area network.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the target devices are storage devices used by the host system to read data from and/or write data to.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifier information is a target identifier that is used by a management application to identify a target that is bound to a particular port of the peripheral device and the target identifier information is different from a worldwide port name.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the converted identifier information is stored in a Windows registry.

6. A computer implemented method for replacing a SCSIport driver at a computing system with a STORport driver without having to manually enter target device identifier information, the computing system coupled to an adapter that is operationally coupled to one or more target devices in a storage area network, the method comprising:

obtaining identifier information for the target devices used by the SCSIport driver in a first format supported by the SCSIport driver;

converting the identifier information for the target devices from the first format supported by the SCSIport driver to a second format supported by the STORport driver; and

automatically persistently binding the converted target device identifier information to a port of the adapter such that the STORport driver can use the persistently bound converted target device identifier information to communicate with the target devices via the port.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the target devices are storage devices used by the computing system to read data from and write data to.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the identifier information is a target identifier that is used by a management application to identify a target that is bound to a particular port of a peripheral device and the target identifier information is different from a worldwide port name.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the converted identifier information is stored in a Windows registry.

10. A host computing system operationally coupled to a peripheral device that is operationally coupled to plural target devices via a storage area network (“SAN”), comprising:

a processor for executing a management application for managing plural SAN components; and a first driver for communicating with the peripheral device, wherein the first driver is replaced with a second driver, the first driver complying with a first protocol and the second driver complying with a second protocol, the first and second protocols being different, identifier information for the target devices that is used by the first driver in a first format and complying with the first protocol is converted from a format supported by the first driver to a second format supported by the second driver, and the converted target device identifier information is automatically persistently bound to a port of the peripheral device such that the second driver can use the persistently bound converted target device identifier information to communicate with the target devices via the port without having to manually enter target device identifier information in the second format; wherein the first driver is a SCSIport driver and the second driver is a STORport driver.

11. The host computing system of claim 10 , wherein the peripheral device is a host bus adapter.

12. The host computing system of claim 10 , wherein the target devices are storage devices used by the host computing system to read data from and write data to.

13. The host computing system of claim 10 , wherein the identifier information is a target identifier that is used by the management application to identify a target that is bound to a particular port of the peripheral device and the target identifier information is different from a worldwide port name.

14. The host computing system of claim 10 , wherein the converted 30 identifier information is stored in a Windows registry.

15. The host computing system of claim 10 , wherein the management application performs the conversion.

16. The method of claim 4 , wherein the management application performs the conversion.