Patent attributes
Techniques for managing data stored in a hierarchical storage management (HSM) system are provided. A first controller receives a request to migrate a data item to a first storage tier managed by the first controller, wherein the data item is not associated with an object ID and a HSM status value indicates that the data item is resident on a second storage tier. The first controller generates an initial object ID, creates a new record for the data item in a data structure, sets an object ID field and a parent ID field of the record to the initial object ID. The first controller stores the data item on the first storage tier and sends an acknowledgement identifying the initial object ID as an object ID of the data item to a second controller that manages the second storage tier. The second controller updates the HSM status value.