Method and apparatus for determining unknown relationships between storage devices and storage device enclosures

Method, program product, and system for the probabilistic determination of storage device enclosure-to-storage device relationships in a storage system, when the exact relationship is unknown. A table is built at storage system startup representing the initial storage device enclosure to storage device relationship. For efficiency, as topology changes occur within the storage system, the table is not updated to reflect the topology change. When a user wishes to access a specific storage device enclosure, the table is opened, and the most recently added storage device entry for the selected enclosure is chosen. The chosen storage device is queried for its current physical location. If the storage device still resides within the selected enclosure, the user access the enclosure via the chosen storage device. If the chosen storage device does not reside within the disclosure, the storage device entry is moved to the enclosure entry where it now resides, and the next most recently added storage device within the selected enclosure entry is chosen. The storage device select/query process is repeated until a storage device referenced by the chosen storage device entry is determined to reside within the selected enclosure. If the list of storage devices for the selected enclosure entry is exhausted, the table is rebuilt.