Replication of versions of an object from a source storage to a target storage

A system in communication with a source storage to a target storage, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code that when executed by the processor performs operations, the operations comprising:
• determining whether replication of a version of a plurality of versions of an object at the source storage, wherein the version is not yet replicated to the target storage, would satisfy a target retention policy if replicated to the target storage;
• replicating the version of the object to the target storage in response to determining that the replication of the version to the target storage would satisfy the target retention policy and updating object information to indicate the version as replicated;
• and
• in response to determining that the replication of the version to the target storage would not satisfy the target retention policy, not replicating the version of the object to the target storage and updating object information to indicate the version of the object as replicated even though the version of the object was not replicated.

A method for expiring objects replicated from a source storage to a target storage, comprising:

• determining whether replication of a version of a plurality of versions of an object at the source storage, wherein the version is not yet replicated to the target storage, would satisfy a target retention policy if replicated to the target storage;
• replicating the version of the object to the target storage in response to determining that the replication of the version to the target storage would satisfy the target retention policy and updating object information to indicate the version as replicated;
• and
• in response to determining that the replication of the version to the target storage would not satisfy the target retention policy, not replicating the version of the object to the target storage and updating object information to indicate the version of the object as replicated even though the version of the object was not replicated;
• wherein the determining whether replication of the version of the object would satisfy a target retention policy is performed in response to initiating a replication operation to replicate unreplicated versions of the object to the target storage;
• and
• wherein the updating object information to indicate the version of the object as replicated includes updating both source object information and target object information.

A method for expiring objects replicated from a source storage to a target storage, comprising:

• determining whether replication of a version of a plurality of versions of an object at the source storage, wherein the version is not yet replicated to the target storage, would satisfy a target retention policy if replicated to the target storage;
• replicating the version of the object to the target storage in response to determining that the replication of the version to the target storage would satisfy the target retention policy and updating object information to indicate the version as replicated;
• and
• in response to determining that the replication of the version to the target storage would not satisfy the target retention policy, not replicating the version of the object to the target storage and updating object information to indicate the version of the object as replicated even though the version of the object was not replicated;
• determining whether the version of an object at the source storage needs to be expired to satisfy a source retention policy;
• and
• determining whether the version of the object is unreplicated in response to determining that the version of the object at the source storage needs to be expired to satisfy the source retention policy, wherein the determining whether replication of the version of the object at the source storage would satisfy the target retention policy is performed for the version of the object having been determined to be unreplicated.