Enhanced resynchronization in a storage-based mirroring system having different storage geometries

Abstract

Resynchronization of data between a primary (production) data site and a secondary (recovery) site following a failure is enhanced when the size of a data track at the production site is different from the size of a data track at the recovery site. The recovery site reads an out-of-sync (OOS) bitmap created at the production site and expands or contracts the bitmap to accommodate the size difference. The resulting production site bitmap is merged with a OOS bitmap maintained at the recovery site to indicate those tracks which are to be transferred from the recovery site to the production site. Thus, only those tracks which are required to be transferred are transferred. Buffer space may be allocated in which to expand or contract the production site OOS bitmap. Buffer space may be conserved by sequentially reading portions of the production site OOS bitmap into a small buffer. In a first operation, half of the bitmap portion is discarded and the remaining half is expanded into the buffer and merged with a corresponding section of the recovery site OOS bitmap. In a second operation, the portion is re-read into the buffer and the other half discarded. The remaining half is then expanded into the buffer and merged with the corresponding section of the recovery site OOS bitmap. The process continues until the entire production site OOS bitmap has been merged with the recovery site OOS bitmap.