Patent ID: 8458125

Claim:
A method of generating replicas or copies of data objects used to serve data streams from a data storage system having a plurality of storage devices, comprising: determining one of the data storage devices is operating at a load above a predetermined overload value, wherein the determined data storage device operates to store one or more data objects and to serve one or more streams from the data objects to create the operating load; identifying the data objects servicing the streams; selecting one of the identified data objects to be replicated; to create a replica, initiating writing data from the selected data object in a second one of the data storage devices using data from one or more of the streams served from the selected data object, wherein the one or more streams concurrently provide data to a stream consumer and to the replica; after the initiating of the writing data to create the replica, receiving a request for a new stream from the selected data object; and serving the new stream from the replica concurrently with continued performance of the writing data to create the replica.