Patent ID: 7284020

Claim:
A system for automatic recovery comprising: a host device, the host device including an application generating input/output (I/O) operations; and a first storage system operatively coupled to the host device, the first storage system including a failure detection module, a controller, a recovery module, a local primary storage volume receiving the I/O operations from the host device, and a local recovery volume, wherein data stored in the primary storage volume is replicated into a local virtual secondary storage volume using a local data replication mechanism, and wherein the data replicated to the virtual secondary storage volume is stored as replicated data to a physical secondary storage volume that is mapped to the local virtual secondary storage volume, said physical secondary storage volume being located at a second storage system separate from said first storage system; wherein when the failure detection module detects a failure in the I/O operations between the host device and the primary storage volume, the recovery module initiates a recovery process that includes detaching the virtual secondary storage volume from receiving replication from the primary storage volume, selecting the local recovery storage volume, attaching the virtual secondary storage volume to the local recovery storage volume, and copying the replicated data from the virtual secondary storage volume to the local recovery storage volume, wherein the recovery module is configured to provide a path from the host device to the local recovery storage volume to allow continuation of the I/O operations automatically following completion of the copying of the replicated data to the local recovery storage volume, wherein the virtual secondary storage volume and the local recovery storage volume are configured with each other to resume local replication, whereby new write data written to the recovery volume by the host as a result of the I/O operations is replicated to the virtual secondary storage volume, and wherein the I/O operations from the host are switched to the recovery storage volume after the recovery process has concluded.