Patent ID: 7461225

Claim:
A storage system coupled to a host computer comprising: a plurality of control units each connected with a respective disk unit and controlled to read/write data sent from the host computer from/to the respective disk unit, wherein the plurality of control units form a pair relationship between a first volume and a second volume in the storage system, the plurality of control units control to copy between the first volume and the second volume, and the second volume is a virtual volume related to a logical volume, and a replication creation unit being adapted to create a copy of the data of a logical volume relating to the disk unit connected with the corresponding control unit; wherein the replication creation unit of a first control unit operates in such a manner that in the case where a copy of a first volume, relating to the disk unit connected to a first control unit, is created in the logical volume relating to the disk unit connected to the first control unit, the volume information of the first volume and the volume information of the copy volume are formed in the pair relationship, and the copy is created in the logical volume relating to the disk unit connected to the first control unit based on the pair relationship, and in the case where a copy of a first volume, relating to the disk unit connected to the first control unit, is created in a logical volume relating to the disk unit connected to a second control unit, the volume information of the first volume, virtual volume information of a virtual replication volume virtualized in the disk unit connected to the first control unit, and information on a second control unit are registered in the pair relationship, and a request to create a copy is transmitted to the second control unit based on the pair relationship when a copy request is sent from the host computer for creating the copy volume in the disk unit connected to the first control unit; and wherein in the case where a copy is created in the volume relating to the disk unit connected to the second control unit, the replication creation unit of the first control unit issues to the second control unit a request to write the data corresponding to the virtual replication volume to the logical volume of the second control unit corresponding to the virtual replication volume.