Patent ID: 7483928

Claim:
A storage operation management apparatus for operating and managing replication of a volume inside a storage device or among a plurality of storage devices, said apparatus comprising a processor and a network unit for communication with said storage device, wherein said network unit is adapted for communication between said processor and said storage device, and wherein said processor is adapted to receive a request for a copy source volume based on information indicating a feature of said copy source volume; create or select said copy source volume based on said information; receive a request for a copy destination volume; in response to said request for a copy destination volume, create or select said copy destination volume to have said feature of said copy source volume, based on a relationship between said copy source volume and said information, and based on possible/impossible pairing information indicating that said copy destination volume has a pairing capability of forming a replication pair with said copy source volume to make possible the copying of contents of said copy source volume to said copy destination volume; and copy the contents of said copy source volume to said copy destination volume created or selected.