US 11,755,230 B2
Asynchronous remote replication of snapshots
Ian Adams, Cambridge, MA (US); Bhaskar Bora, Shrewsbury, MA (US); and Jeffrey Wilson, Franklin, MA (US)
Assigned to EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA (US)
Filed by EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA (US)
Filed on Apr. 22, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/237,171.
Prior Publication US 2022/0342549 A1, Oct. 27, 2022
Int. Cl. G06F 3/06 (2006.01)
CPC G06F 3/065 (2013.01) [G06F 3/067 (2013.01); G06F 3/0619 (2013.01); G06F 3/0659 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
8. A system comprising:
a first storage system;
a second storage system;
a first logical storage unit for which data is replicated from the first storage system to the second storage system; and
executable logic that implements a method of replicating a first snapshot of the first logical storage unit from the first storage system to the second storage system, the method including:
for write requests received on the first storage system, recording, in a first buffer associated with a first replication cycle on the first storage system, write operations of the write requests as part of a first set of write operations of the first replication cycle;
taking a first snapshot of the first logical storage unit on the first storage system;
recording, in the first buffer associated with the first replication cycle, an indication to replicate the first snapshot on the second storage system;
sending one or more communications from the first storage system to the second storage system, wherein the one or more communications include the indication and the write operations of the first replication cycle of the first buffer;
receiving, at the second storage system, the one or more communications; and
responsive to said receiving, the second storage system processing the one or more communications, said processing the one or more communications further including:
accessing the indication which is included in the one or more communications and which indicates to replicate the first snapshot on the second storage system after applying the write operations of the first replication cycle;
responsive to said accessing the indication, recording the indication to replicate the first snapshot on the second storage system;
applying the write operations of the first replication cycle to the second storage system; and
after applying the write operations of the first replication cycle, taking a second snapshot on the second storage system responsive to the recorded indication, wherein the second snapshot is a replica of the first snapshot.