Patent ID: 8150805

Claim:
A method, comprising: sending replicated write requests from a plurality of nodes in a distributed computing environment to a shared replication target device, wherein each of the plurality of nodes is a computing entity configured to send replicated write requests in a request stream or log stream to the shared replication target device, and wherein each replicated write request is associated with a first consistency interval; requesting, by one of the nodes, a consistency interval transition from the first consistency interval to a second consistency interval, wherein the one of the nodes requesting the consistency interval transition is one of the plurality of nodes sending replicated write requests, and wherein the consistency interval transition applies to each one of the plurality of nodes; in response to said requesting, initiating the consistency interval transition to define a point in time for which data on the shared replication target device is in a consistent state, wherein the data on the shared replication target device is consistent with respect to replicated write requests from each one of the plurality of nodes to the shared replication target device for the first consistency interval; and sending a command message to the shared replication target device, wherein the command message is associated with the consistency interval transition and specifies a requested action to be performed with respect to said consistent state, wherein said sending the command message comprises inserting the command message for the consistency interval transition in the request stream or the log stream.