Patent ID: 7779218

Claim:
A method to implement data synchronization in a data replication management group managed by a source controller and a data destination controller, comprising: receiving, in the source controller, a signal indicative of a write request to a data storage segment in a source volume managed by the source controller; in response to the signal: writing data associated with the write request to the destination controller when a connection to the destination controller is available; setting a synchronization flag associated with the data storage segment managed by the source controller when a connection to the destination controller is unavailable; and marking the source volume for the full copy operation when a connection to the destination controller is unavailable and a log file is full; and initiating a data replication routine to synchronize data in the data replication management group; comprising: if a fast synchronization operation is valid for the data replication management group and the source volume is marked for full copy operation, copying the data storage segment based on the synchronization flag; if a fast synchronization operation is not valid for the data replication management group and the source volume is marked for full copy operation, copying the entire source volume; and if the source volume is not marked for full copy operation, replaying the log file.