Method for mirroring data at storage locations

1. A method for mirroring data, comprising:

processing a mirror policy indicating volumes in a first storage system to mirror to volumes in a second storage system and volumes in the second storage system to mirror to volumes in a third storage system, wherein the third storage system is at a first geographical location remote with respect to a second geographical location including the first and second storage systems, and wherein the mirror policy indicates volumes in the third storage system to mirror to volumes in a fourth storage system at the second geographical location;

performing an initial copy operation to copy volumes in the mirror policy from the first storage system to the second storage system and to copy the volumes in the mirror policy to a third storage system;

transmitting a command to cause the copying of updates to the volumes in the first storage system to corresponding volumes in the second storage system indicated in the mirror policy in response to completing the copying of the volumes in the mirror policy to the second storage system;

upon an occurrence of an event, causing the suspension of the copying of updates to the volumes in the first storage system indicated in the mirroring policy to the volumes in the second storage system to form a consistency group of updates between volumes in the second and third storage systems that is consistent as of a point in time with the volumes in the first storage subsystem; and

during the suspension of the copying of volumes between the first and second storage systems, causing the copying of updates to the volumes in the second storage system indicated in the mirroring policy, which comprise the updates to the volumes in the first storage system, from the second storage system to the volumes in the third storage system indicated in the mirroring policy to form the consistency group of updates among volumes in the first, second and third storage systems as of the point-in-time;

determining whether the copying of the updates to the volumes in the first storage system from the second storage system to volumes in the third storage system has completed;

causing the end of the suspension to cause the continuation of the copying of updates to the volumes in the first storage system to the volumes in the second storage system in response to completing the copying of the updates to the volumes in the first storage system from the second storage system to the third storage system;

determining whether the copying of the updates to the volumes in the second storage system to volumes in the third storage system has complete; and

making a copy of the volumes in the third storage system indicated in the mirroring policy to the volumes in the fourth storage system indicated in the mirroring policy to harden the consistency group in the fourth storage system, where a consistency group of data as of a point-in-time is maintained in the volumes in the first, second, third, and fourth storage subsystems.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the command to cause the copying of updates to volumes in the first storage system to volumes in the second storage system causes asynchronous copying.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the command to cause the copying of updates to volumes in the second storage system to volumes in the third storage system causes asynchronous copying.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the copying of the updates to the volumes in the second storage system to volumes in the third storage system has completed comprises:

causing the sending of a query command to a storage controller managing access to the third storage system to determine whether all updates to volumes in the second storage system have been received to volumes in the third storage system.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

periodically causing the sending of the query command to determine whether all updates to volumes in the second storage system have been received to volumes in the third storage system.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein making the copy of the volumes between the third and fourth storage system comprises making a logical copy of pointers to the volumes in the third storage system and copying the data addressed by the pointers in the volumes in the third storage system to the volumes in the fourth storage system.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein updates continue to be received and made to the volumes in the first storage system during the suspension of the copying of volumes between the first and second storage systems.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second geographical locations are separated by at least two hundred miles.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the operation of copying updates to the volumes in the first storage system to the corresponding volumes in the second storage system indicated in the mirror policy is continuous, except during a time of the suspension of the copying of the volumes between the first and second storage systems to form a consistency group.