Patent ID: 7062541

Claim:
A method for transferring a group of related data objects across a distributed data storage system having a source site and a target site, the method comprising: assigning a group identifier configured to identify a cross-linked relationship between data objects to a group of data objects at a source site, the data objects of the group of data objects related by a predetermined policy configured to define the required data objects for a complete group of data objects; locating data objects of the group of data objects dispersed over separate storage devices of the source site; transferring the group of data objects in the order the data objects are accessed in the storage devices from the source site to a nonvolatile storage device of a target site, including concurrently transferring the group identifier together with each data object of the group of data objects; tracking the group of data objects at the target site with the group identifier; and determining whether the data objects of the transferred group of data objects comply with the policy.