Patent ID: 7143176

Claim:
A method for copying data over a network operating in accordance with a protocol that supports a given logical address range, the method comprising: establishing a logical path over the network from a primary storage system to a secondary storage system using path logical addresses within the given logical address range; creating a virtual path over the logical path to carry the data from a source storage device in a first logical subsystem of the primary storage system to a target storage device in a second logical subsystem of the secondary storage system, the first and second logical subsystems having respective first and second subsystem logical addresses which are outside the given logical address range; initiating a peer-to-peer remote copy (PPRC) operation to copy the data from the source storage device to the target storage device by sending a command frame over the logical path from the primary storage system to the secondary storage system, followed by a first data frame identifying the target storage device, such that both the command and data frames are arranged to comply with the protocol; and sending one or more further data frames over the logical path following the first data frame, the further data frames complying with the protocol and containing the data to be copied in the PPRC operation.