Patent ID: 9588703
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A method comprising: receiving, at a data protection appliance at a replication site, a punch command sent from a data protection appliance at a production site, the punch command sent by the data protection appliance at the production site regardless of whether storage at the replication site supports the punch command; writing the punch command received from the data protection appliance at the production site in a journal at the replication site; applying, by the data protection appliance at the replication site, the punch command to storage at the replication site, wherein the storage at the replication site comprises a thin logical volume, wherein the punch command is applied by the data protection appliance at the replication site in response to the punch command received from the data protection appliance at the production site, comprising: determining whether the punch command is supported by the thin logical volume at the replication site prior to sending the punch command to the thin logical volume at the replication site; if the punch command is supported by the thin logical volume at the replication site, sending the punch command to the thin logical volume at the replication site to free data from the storage; and if the punch command is not supported by the thin logical volume at the replication site, sending a command to the thin logical volume at the replication site to write zeros to a portion of the thin logical volume at the replication site indicated by the punch command to free data from the storage; and writing data being freed from the storage at the replication site to an undo stream of the journal at the replication site in response to the punch application.