US Patent 7165158 System and method for migrating a replication system

A virtualization system is introduced between a host and a storage system. An apparatus, system, and method of migrating replication includes stopping or making dormant applications on a host, or checking whether the applications are stopped or dormant. The statuses of a primary volume and a secondary volume that is a replica of the primary volume are checked to determine whether they have become identical. A primary virtual volume is defined to map to the primary volume and a secondary virtual volume is defined to map to the secondary volume. Replication is defined from the primary virtual volume to the secondary virtual volume. Replication is started with a NOCOPY option, and the applications may be restarted or a message is sent indicating that the applications can be restarted. There is no actual migration of application data, and as result, the time required for migrating replication can be eliminated.