1. A method of provisioning storage resources for a storage system, the method comprising: receiving, from a user, a request to provision storage resources for the storage system, the request including values of a set of provisioning target parameters indicative of provisioning operation requirements; producing, from the values of the set of provisioning target parameters, a set of facts, each fact of the set of facts being configured as input into an expert system that includes a knowledge base and an inference engine, the knowledge base being configured to store a set of logical rules, the inference engine being configured to derive a storage provisioning decision from the set of facts and the knowledge base by firing particular logical rules of the set of logical rules; inputting the set of logical rules and the set of facts into the inference engine to produce the storage resource provisioning decision; and displaying the storage resource provisioning decision to the user; wherein the set of provisioning target parameters includes parameters that specify provisioning operation requirements for a provisioning target; wherein producing the set of facts includes defining a provisioning target fact template based on the provisioning target; wherein each rule of the set of logical rules includes a precondition and an action that follows when the precondition is true; wherein the set of logical rules of the knowledge base includes a set of provisioning rules configured to be fired by the inference engine in the presence of facts conforming to the provisioning target fact template; and wherein inputting the set of logical rules and the set of facts into the inference engine includes providing a command to the inference engine to fire a provisioning rule of the set of provisioning rules when the precondition of the provisioning rule matches a fact of the set of facts.
1. A method of provisioning storage resources for a storage system, the method comprising: receiving, from a user, a request to provision storage resources for the storage system, the request including values of a set of provisioning target parameters indicative of provisioning operation requirements; producing, from the values of the set of provisioning target parameters, a set of facts, each fact of the set of facts being configured as input into an expert system that includes a knowledge base and an inference engine, the knowledge base being configured to store a set of logical rules, the inference engine being configured to derive a storage provisioning decision from the set of facts and the knowledge base by firing particular logical rules of the set of logical rules; inputting the set of logical rules and the set of facts into the inference engine to produce the storage resource provisioning decision; and displaying the storage resource provisioning decision to the user; wherein the set of provisioning target parameters includes parameters that specify provisioning operation requirements for a provisioning target; wherein producing the set of facts includes defining a provisioning target fact template based on the provisioning target; wherein each rule of the set of logical rules includes a precondition and an action that follows when the precondition is true; wherein the set of logical rules of the knowledge base includes a set of provisioning rules configured to be fired by the inference engine in the presence of facts conforming to the provisioning target fact template; and wherein inputting the set of logical rules and the set of facts into the inference engine includes providing a command to the inference engine to fire a provisioning rule of the set of provisioning rules when the precondition of the provisioning rule matches a fact of the set of facts. 6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: performing a subsequent automatic provisioning operation based on the storage resource provisioning decision.