Patent ID: 8335766

Claim:
A computer program product comprising: a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable code embodied therein, the computer-readable code executable by a processor of a primary storage controller, the computer-readable code comprising: first computer-readable code to receive a command from a primary host system, the command specifying that a first primary volume is to be flash-copied to a second primary volume, where flash-copying provides for completion of copying the first primary volume to the second primary volume to be signaled prior to data on the first primary volume being physically copied to the second primary volume; second computer-readable code to, responsive to receiving the command, verify at least a first state of the first primary volume and the second primary volume to determine whether at least the first state permits flash-copying of the first primary volume to the second primary volume; third computer-readable code to, responsive to successfully verifying at least the first state, send a query to a secondary host system, the query requesting whether a first secondary volume can be flash-copied to a second secondary volume, the first secondary volume asynchronously mirroring the first primary volume, and the second secondary volume asynchronously mirroring the second primary volume; and, fourth computer-readable code to, responsive to unsuccessfully verifying at least the first state, send a first response to the primary host system, the first response indicating that the command specifying that the first primary volume is to be flash-copied to the second primary volume cannot be fulfilled.