One example method includes intercepting an IO issued by an application, writing the IO and IO metadata to a splitter journal in NVM, forwarding the IO to storage, and asynchronous with operations occurring along an IO path between the application and storage, evacuating the splitter journal by sending the IO and IO metadata from the splitter journal to a replication site. In this example, sending the IO and IO metadata from the journal to the replication site does not increase a latency associated with the operations on the IO path

In an example embodiment, a solution is used to provide container volume replication via a container storage replication log and volume buffer synchronization, which is built on top of a container cloud platform whose container metadata and replication runtime configuration are all managed by a storage manager (a service orchestrated by its job scheduler and service orchestrator). This container volume replication ensures the data security for a long-running service in the container. In the case of any disaster, the in-memory database and application data inside of the container can be recovered via volume replication. This provides container volume replication for long-running containerized applications whose states keep changing.

Methods and systems for using a hierarchical consistency group (CG) in a storage system are provided. A parent CG is associated with at least a first child CG having a plurality of storage volumes. An atomic application programming interface (API) provisions the parent CG and the first child CG by allocating storage and storing policies for the parent CG and the first CG. A storage service selected from a backup service, a replication service and a cloning service for the parent CG and the first CG is executed based on the stored policies.

Examples of the present disclosure describe implementing bitmap-based data replication when a primary form of data replication between a source device and a target device cannot be used. According to one example, a temporal identifier may be received from the target device. If the source device determines that the primary replication method is unable to be used to replicate data associated with the temporal identifier, a secondary replication method may be initiated. The secondary replication method may utilize a recovery bitmap identifying data blocks that have changed on the source device since a previous event.

In an example embodiment, a solution is used to provide container volume replication via a container storage replication log and volume buffer synchronization, which is built on top of a container cloud platform whose container metadata and replication runtime configuration are all managed by a storage manager (a service orchestrated by its job scheduler and service orchestrator). This container volume replication ensures the data security for a long-running service in the container. In the case of any disaster, the in-memory database and application data inside of the container can be recovered via volume replication. This provides container volume replication for long-running containerized applications whose states keep changing.

Methods and systems for using a hierarchical consistency group (CG) in a storage system are provided. A parent CG is associated with at least a first child CG having a plurality of storage volumes. An atomic application programming interface (API) provisions the parent CG and the first child CG by allocating storage and storing policies for the parent CG and the first CG. A storage service selected from a backup service, a replication service and a cloning service for the parent CG and the first CG is executed based on the stored policies.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and system for managing a memory in a storage system. In one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for managing a memory in a storage system. The storage system comprises a first controller, a first memory and a first additional memory that is coupled to the first controller. The method comprises: in response to an access request on the storage system from the first controller hitting the first memory, allocating a storage space in the first additional memory; writing data associated with the access request in the first memory to the storage space allocated in the first additional memory; and serving the access request via the storage space allocated in the first additional memory. In another embodiment of the present invention there is further proposed a system for managing a memory in a storage system.

According to the present invention, a process that requires for creating a backup at a designated time point is executed by sharing among a plurality of storage control apparatuses. An intermediate storage apparatus 2 reads journal data and a JNCB from a primary storage apparatus 1, and stores the journal data and the JNCB in an intermediate journal volume 28. A secondary storage apparatus 3 reads the journal data and the JNCB from the intermediate storage apparatus 2, and stores the journal data and the JNCB in a secondary journal volume 38. After the secondary storage apparatus 3 having a designated generation restores the journal data up to a designated time point into a secondary data volume 37, the secondary storage apparatus 3 splits a copy pair. Another secondary storage apparatus 3 executes a regular restoring process.

A clustered pair of storage systems configured for active-active bidirectional synchronous replication expose a stretched volume over paths to both storage systems. Writes to the stretched volume received at each system are replicated to the peer system. The cluster can use a time-to-live (TTL) mechanism by which a non-preferred system continuously requests a TTL grant from the preferred system to remain in the cluster. Algorithms that reduce or avoid data unavailability are described and can include assessing the health of the systems in the cluster. An unhealthy system can trigger a one-sided polarization algorithm to notify the peer system that it is polarization winner. An improved polarization technique using a witness to decide the polarization winner includes a system adding a time delay before contacting the witness if the system is unhealthy. A control component can detect an unhealthy system and disable the active-active bidirectional synchronous replication.

A method for optimizing recovery in a data replication environment is disclosed. In one embodiment, such a method includes directing I/O from a primary site to a secondary site in response to a failure at the primary site. After the primary site has recovered from the failure, the method initiates a recovery process wherein updated data elements at the secondary site are copied to the primary site. The method determines a recorded average I/O latency for a host system driving I/O to the secondary site, and calculates an expected average I/O latency for the host system driving I/O to the primary site. The method redirects I/O from the secondary site to the primary site when a difference between the expected average I/O latency and the recorded average I/O latency reaches a threshold value. A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed.