System and method for management of data replication

[0035]The methods and apparatus of the present invention are intended for use in data storage systems, such as the Symmetrix Integrated Cache Disk Array system available from EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass. Specifically, this invention is directed to methods and apparatus for use in systems of this type that include transferring a mirrored set of data from a standard device to a redundant device for use in applications such as backup or error recovery, but which is not limited to such applications. The present invention addresses a problem of managing operations when one or more redundant devices are used and one or more of such devices may be remotely located from the standard device.

[0036]The methods and apparatus of this invention may take the form, at least partially, of program code (i.e., instructions) embodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, random access or read only-memory, or any other machine-readable storage medium. When the program co