Abstract: Provided are a method, system, and program for using a heartbeat signal to maintain data consistency for writes to source storage copied to target storage. A copy relationship associates a source storage and target storage pair, wherein writes received at the source storage are transferred to the target storage. A determination is made whether a signal has been received from a system within a receive signal interval. A freeze operation is initiated to cease receiving writes at the source storage from an application in response to determining that the signal has not been received within the receive signal interval. A thaw operation is initiated to continue receiving write operations at the source storage from applications after a lapse of a freeze timeout in response to the freeze operation, wherein after the thaw operation, received writes completed at the source storage are not transferred to the target storage.

Abstract: A method is disclosed to provide commands to an information storage and retrieval comprising one or more data storage devices, where one or more first communication links interconnect one or more host computers and the data storage and retrieval system. The method supplies a computing device, where that computing device is external to the data storage and retrieval system, and where that computing device is external to each of the one or more host computers. Applicants' method further supplies a second communication link interconnecting the computing device and the data storage and retrieval system. The computing device generates a command signal, where said command signal comprises one or more command control words and a header. The computing device then provides that command signal to the data storage and retrieval system via the second communication link.

Abstract: The invention automatically selects a copy function according to a policy associated with data to be copied. The apparatus comprises an identification module configured to identify available copy functions in response to a data copy request that includes a predefined copy policy, a comparison module configured to compare each copy function of a storage device to attributes of the predefined copy policy, a selection module configured to automatically select a copy function that satisfies the predefined copy policy, and a relationship module configured to establish a copy relationship between the determined copy function and the data copy request. A policy generation module may be included and configured to read a set of required attributes from an application and to establish the predefined copy policy based on the set of required attributes from the application.

Abstract: A computer program for automatically pairing target resources 20 such as volumes or logical units to source resources 20 containing data to be copied. Available target pools 48, 50, 52, 54 of target volumes are determined eligible for copying based on a technical compatibility and a user-defined metric such as recovery point or recovery time. User defined metrics and a policy to implement the metrics may be stored in a medium and selected by a user. The source volumes are prioritized, and progressively larger segments of the eligible target pools are searched for a target volume that satisfies the technical compatibility and user-defined metric. Where subgroups such as nested volumes are present in the source volumes, subgroups are also prioritized for searching. Where no target volume can be paired, the corresponding source volume is marked as processed and a search begins for the next source volume.

Abstract: Disclosed is a technique for creating a copy services solution. A document describing the copy services solution is received. The document is converted to executable code. The code is executed to perform one or more base copy services solutions described with base copy types in the document.