Abstract: Two data storage systems are interconnected by a data link for remote mirroring of data. Each volume of data is configured as local, primary in a remotely mirrored volume pair, or secondary in a remotely mirrored volume pair. Normally, a host computer directly accesses either a local or a primary volume, and data written to a primary volume is automatically sent over the link to a corresponding secondary volume. Each remotely mirrored volume pair can operate in a selected synchronization mode including synchronous, semi-synchronous, adaptive copy - remote write pending, and adaptive copy - disk. Direct write access to a secondary volume is denied if a "sync required" attribute is set for the volume and the volume is not synchronized. If a "volume domino" mode is enabled for a remotely mirrored volume pair, access to a volume of the pair is denied when the other volume is inaccessible.