Patent ID: 9400613
Filing Date: 2016-07-26
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: according to rules, obtaining a list of available devices in a storage group using a snapshot method for a backup; from the list of available devices, generating a list of currently paired devices with a source using the snapshot method for the backup; generating a list of unrelated but available devices using the source, the list of currently paired devices, and the list of available devices; determining whether the list of currently paired devices is empty; if the list of currently paired devices is not empty, determining if the one or more target devices can be selected from the list of available devices, if nothing can be selected from the list of available devices, selecting the one or more target devices from the list of unrelated but available devices and pairing the one or more target devices with the source; and if the one or more target devices can been selected, selecting the one or more target devices from the list of currently paired devices and pairing the one or more target devices with the source; and if the list of currently paired devices is empty, selecting the one or more target devices from the list of unrelated but available devices and pairing the one or more target devices with the source; and wherein from the list of available devices, generating the list of currently paired devices with the source using the snapshot method for the backup comprises: determining for a device of each device in the list of available devices whether the device is currently paired with the source using the snapshot method for the backup; adding the device to the list of currently paired devices if the device is currently paired with the source using the snapshot method for the backup; and sorting the list of currently paired devices by least to most expensive to synchronize with the source when the list of currently paired devices is not empty.