Patent ID: 7904682

Claim:
A method, comprising: communicating, using a first network protocol, a first failure notification from a first primary device in a first group of at least one first primary device and at least one corresponding first primary storage managed by the at least one first primary device to a control system in response to the first primary device determining that a first write to the first primary storage cannot be copied to a corresponding first secondary storage; communicating, using a second network protocol, a second failure notification from a second primary device in a second group of at least one second primary device and at least one corresponding second primary storage managed by the at least one second primary device to the control system in response to the second primary device determining that a second write to the corresponding second primary storage cannot be copied to a corresponding second secondary storage; receiving, from the control system using the first network protocol, a first freeze command, sent by the control software in response to the first failure notification, at the at least one first primary device in the first group; receiving, from the control system using the second network protocol, a second freeze command, sent by the control software in response to the second failure notification, at the at least one first primary device in the second group; and suspending the copying of writes from the first and second primary storages in the first and second groups to the corresponding first and second secondary storages in response to receiving the first and second freeze commands, respectively.