Patent ID: 8209282

Claim:
A method for mirroring data, comprising: processing a mirror policy indicating volumes in a first storage system to mirror to volumes in a second storage system and volumes in the second storage system to mirror to volumes in a third storage system, wherein the third storage system is at a first geographical location remote with respect to a second geographical location including the first and second storage systems; transmitting a copy command to cause the copying of updates to the volumes in the first storage system to corresponding volumes in the second storage system indicated in the mirror policy; issuing a suspend command according to the mirror policy parameters to suspend the copying of updates to the volumes in the first storage system indicated in the mirroring policy to the volumes in the second storage system to form a consistency group of updates between volumes in the second and third storage systems that is consistent as of a point-in-time with the volumes in the first storage system; and during the suspension of the copying of volumes between the first and second storage systems, causing the copying of updates to the volumes in the second storage system indicated in the mirroring policy, which comprise the updates to the volumes in the first storage system, from the second storage system to the volumes in the third storage system indicated in the mirroring policy.