Patent ID: 7418565

Claim:
A remote copy system comprising: a plurality of primary storage subsystems having a plurality of primary logical storage areas, each of the plurality of primary storage subsystems including a primary controller and at least one of the plurality of primary logical storage areas associated with at least one primary disk; a primary apparatus coupled to the plurality of primary storage subsystems; a plurality of secondary storage subsystems having a plurality of secondary logical storage areas, each of the plurality of secondary storage subsystems including a secondary controller and at least one of the plurality of secondary logical storage areas associated with at least one secondary disk; and a secondary apparatus coupled to the plurality of secondary storage subsystems; wherein the primary apparatus manages a mapping between first address information to access the plurality of primary logical storage areas and second address information to access at least one primary virtual storage area, and executes a remote copy operation, wherein the secondary apparatus manages a mapping between third address information to access the plurality of secondary logical storage areas and fourth address information to access at least one secondary virtual storage area, and executes a remote copy operation, wherein the at least one primary virtual storage area includes a copy source virtual storage area and the at least one secondary virtual storage area includes a copy destination virtual storage area, wherein when the primary apparatus receives a write request to the copy source virtual storage area from a host computer, the primary apparatus sends write data received according to the write request to at least one of the plurality of primary storage subsystems having a copy source primary logical storage area to store the write data in the copy source primary logical storage area, the copy source primary logical storage area being one of the plurality of primary logical storage areas and being associated with the copy source virtual storage area, wherein the primary apparatus transmits a copy of the write data and time information assigned to the copy of the write data to the secondary apparatus, wherein the secondary apparatus controls to store the copy of the write data and the time information in a journal area in at least one of the plurality of secondary storage subsystems, and wherein when a certain time is determined, the secondary apparatus controls to store one or more copies, to which the time information indicating a time prior to the certain time is assigned, stored in the journal area to the copy destination virtual storage area so that the one or more copies are sent to at least one of the plurality of secondary storage subsystems having a copy destination secondary logical storage area, the copy destination secondary logical storage area being one of the plurality of secondary logical storage areas and being associated with the copy destination virtual storage area.