Storage system asynchronous data replication cycle trigger with empty cycle detection

A storage system comprising:

• at least one target device;
• at least one source device;
• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing computer program code that when executed on the processor causes the processor to execute a data replication process associated with the at least one source device and the at least one target device by performing the operations of:
• initiating a current asynchronous replication cycle at a time-based interval based upon a replication policy of the storage system;
• and
• for the current asynchronous replication cycle:
• determining whether data stored on portions of the at least one source device has changed from a previous asynchronous replication cycle based on one or more indicators associated with the data;
• when the one or more indicators indicate that the data from the at least one source device has not changed from the previous asynchronous replication cycle and the replication policy does not require storage of a replica for the current asynchronous replication cycle if the data has not changed, updating a timestamp of a pre-existing replica of the at least one source device that is stored in the at least one target device to satisfy a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) setting of the storage system without overwriting the pre-existing replica;
• and
• when the one or more indicators indicate that the data from the at least one source device has not changed from the previous asynchronous replication cycle and the replication policy requires storage of a replica for the current asynchronous replication cycle if the data has not changed, generating a new replica of the at least one source device and transferring the new replica to the at least one target device,
• wherein each of the indicators is associated with a different portion of the source device, and the one or more indicators are stored in a bitmap associated with the source device.

A computer program product including a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer program code encoded thereon that when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform the operations of:

• initiating a current asynchronous replication cycle at a time-based interval based upon a replication policy of a storage system, the current asynchronous replication cycle to replicate data from at least one source device that is part of the storage system to at least one target device that is part of the storage system;
• and
• for the current asynchronous replication cycle:
• determining whether data stored on portions of the at least one source device has changed from a previous asynchronous replication cycle based on one or more indicators associated with the data;
• when the one or more indicators indicate that the data has not changed from the previous asynchronous replication cycle and the replication policy does not require storage of a replica for the current asynchronous replication cycle if the data has not changed, updating a timestamp of a pre-existing replica of the at least one source device that is stored in the at least one target device to satisfy a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) setting of the storage system without overwriting the pre-existing replica;
• and
• when the one or more indicators indicate that the data has not changed from the previous asynchronous replication cycle and the replication policy requires storage of a replica for the current asynchronous replication cycle if the data has not changed, generating a new replica of the at least one source device and transferring the new replica to the at least one target device,
• wherein each of the indicators is associated with a different portion of the source device, and the one or more indicators are stored in a bitmap associated with the source device.