Patent ID: 7433899

Claim:
An apparatus for managing multiple copy versions of a source volume, the apparatus comprising: a replication record management module comprising executable code stored on a semiconductor device, executed by a processor, and configured to maintain a current replication record descriptive of a current copy version of a source volume and comprising a time, a copy version, and at least one copy pair, and maintain a previous replication record descriptive of a previous copy version; a pre-pairing module comprising executable code stored on the semiconductor device, executed by the processor, and configured to create a future pre-pairing record descriptive of a future copy version of the source volume and comprising a time, a copy version, and at least one copy pair; a pre-pairing record management module configured to maintain the future pre-pairing record, and a previous pre-pairing record descriptive of a previous copy version; a copy record module comprising executable code stored on the semiconductor device, executed by the processor, and configured to create a copy record from a pre-copy record, the pre-copy record comprising the future pre-pairing record if the future pre-pairing record exists else comprising the current replication record; a replication module comprising executable code stored on the semiconductor device, executed by the processor, and configured to replicate the source volume on a target volume, create a new copy version of the source volume according to the copy record, and establish a new replication record descriptive of the new copy version of the source volume; and the replication record management module is further configured to compare the new replication record to the current replication record and to break a copy pair for a removed source volume present in the current replication record, but not present in the new replication record.