Patent ID: 7546364

Claim:
In a data processing system having a plurality of host computers linked by an Internet Protocol (IP) network to a plurality of data storage systems, each of the data storage systems having data storage and at least one data mover computer for moving data between the data storage and the IP network, a method of distributing remote copy data over the IP network from a primary one of the data mover computers to a plurality of secondary ones of the data mover computers, wherein the method comprises: the primary data mover computer sending the remote copy data over the IP network to at least one forwarder data mover computer, and the forwarder data mover computer routing the remote copy data over the IP network to the plurality of secondary data mover computers; wherein the primary data mover computer manages a primary file system in the data storage of the storage system including the primary data mover computer, each secondary data mover computer manages a secondary file system in the data storage of the data storage system including said each secondary data mover computer, and each secondary file system is maintained as a remote copy of the primary file system; and which includes operating a replication service that transmits modifications of the primary file system to the secondary data mover computers, and then creating a new secondary file system by copying the primary file system to the new secondary file system concurrent with the operation of the replication service, and after the primary file system has been copied to the new secondary file system, updating the new secondary file system with modifications transmitted by the replication service from the primary file system; wherein the replication service transmits modifications from the primary file system to a save volume during the copying of the primary file system to the new secondary file system, and upon completion of the copying of the primary file system to the new secondary file system, the modifications are copied from the save volume to the new secondary file system; and wherein the new secondary file system is at a remote site and the save volume is at the remote site, and the method includes transmitting at least a portion of the modifications of the primary file system to the save volume concurrently with the copying of the primary file system to the new secondary file system.