Patent ID: 8667497

Claim:
A method of prescribing copy services relationships for storage resources in a computing environment by a processor device, comprising: organizing the storage resources into a plurality of resource groups that are each uniquely identified by a resource group label, each of the storage resources having at least one of a plurality of resource group attributes associating a storage resource object with the plurality of resource groups and associating at least one policy via the at least one of the plurality of resource group attributes in the plurality of resource groups with the storage resources; defining one of the at least one of the plurality of resource group attributes to specify the at least one policy prescribing the copy services relationships between the storage resources associated with the plurality of resource groups; and utilizing, by the at least one policy prescribing the copy services relationships, a resource group label attribute of the resource group to identify at least one of the plurality of resource groups within a storage subsystem of the computing environment, wherein the resource group label attribute is used in conjunction with the at least one of the plurality of resource group attributes in one of the plurality of resource groups and in one of a plurality of user ID accounts, and performing at least one of: defining, by the at least one of the plurality of resource group attributes, pattern adapted to be compared to each of a set of resource group labels such that the resource group labels may be determined to perform one of matching and not matching the pattern, and considering the at least one of the plurality of resource groups to be included within the scope of the resource scope attribute for purposes of making a policy decision to perform one of allowing and disallowing copy services operations: wherein the copy services relationships between the storage resources associated with the plurality of resource groups and the storage resources that are a partner of the copy services relationships are assigned the one of the at least one of the plurality of resource group attributes in a manner dependent on a copy services request, wherein pursuant to a request to establish the copy services relationships between the two storage resources: each of the two storage resources exchange the resource group label corresponding to which of the plurality of resource groups the two storage resources are assigned, and each of the two storage resources validate the request and the resource group labels of the opposing the storage resources against the one of the at least one of the plurality of resource group attributes defining a copy relationship policy in the storage resources associated with selected ones of the plurality of resource groups to determine if the copy services relationships may proceed.