Patent ID: 8527720

Claim:
A method, comprising: obtaining a Dynamic Storage Tiering (DST) configuration of a virtual volume at a first point in time, the virtual volume being provisioned from at least one storage pool of a storage array, the first point in time being in a period of peak data load; creating a Point-in-Time copy (PiT) in a destination storage pool when the virtual volume includes at least one PiT; creating a PiT temporary virtual volume (PTVV) in the virtual volume, the PTVV configured to store changes made to the virtual volume since the PiT of the virtual volume was created to preserve a copy of the virtual volume that existed prior to changes made to the virtual volume since the PiT of the virtual volume was created; reconfiguring at least one virtual volume segment to contain a hot-spot when the virtual volume does not include at least one PiT, the at least one virtual volume segment configured to be moved to at least one corresponding storage pool; determining whether the virtual volume included at least one PiT when the DST configuration was obtained; recording the DST configuration when it is determined that the virtual volume included at least one PiT when the DST configuration was obtained; specifying the DST configuration be applied to the storage array at a second point in time, the second point in time occurring prior to a second period of peak data load; applying the DST configuration to the storage array at the second point in time; and including a delay period to be initiated upon application of the DST configuration to the storage array at the second point in time, wherein during the delay period a DST module is disabled, and wherein after the delay period, the DST module is enabled, the delay period set to terminate during the second period of peak data load.