Establishing paths between servers in a copy environment for different copy relationships between the servers

A computer program product for establishing paths in a storage environment having a first storage system, a second storage system, and a third storage system, wherein the computer program product comprises a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, when executed cause operations, the operations comprising:

• establishing a first path from the first storage system to the second storage system as part of a first active copy relationship to copy updated data from the first storage system to the second storage system, wherein the second storage system is in an inactive copy relationship with the third storage system having synchronization information indicating updated data for the third storage system to copy to the second storage system when the inactive copy relationship is subsequently activated;
• establishing a second path from the first storage system to the third storage system as part of a second active copy relationship between the first storage system and the third storage system;
• and
• sending, by the first storage system, a command on the second path to the third storage system to cause the third storage system to update the synchronization information for the inactive copy relationship to indicate that updated data does not need to be copied from the third storage system to the second storage system.

A system, comprising:

• a first storage system;
• a second storage system;
• a third storage system;
• wherein the first storage system performs operations, the operations comprising:
• establishing a first path from the first storage system to the second storage system as part of a first active copy relationship to copy updated data from the first storage system to the second storage system, wherein the second storage system is in an inactive copy relationship with the third storage system having synchronization information indicating updated data for the third storage system to copy to the second storage system when the inactive copy relationship is subsequently activated;
• establishing a second path from the first storage system to the third storage system as part of a second active copy relationship between the first storage system and the third storage system;
• and
• sending, by the first storage system, a command on the second path to the third storage system to cause the third storage system to update the synchronization information for the inactive copy relationship to indicate that updated data does not need to be copied from the third storage system to the second storage system.

A method for establishing paths among a first storage system, a asecond storage system, and a third storage system, comprising:

• establishing a first path from the first storage system to the second storage system as part of a first active copy relationship to copy updated data from the first storage system to the second storage system, wherein the second storage system is in an inactive copy relationship with the third storage system having synchronization information indicating updated data for the third storage system to copy to the second storage system when the inactive copy relationship is subsequently activated;
• establishing a second path from the first storage system to the third storage system as part of a second active copy relationship between the first storage system and the third storage system;
• and
• sending, by the first storage system, a command on the second path to the third storage system to cause the third storage system to update the synchronization information for the inactive copy relationship to indicate that updated data does not need to be copied from the third storage system to the second storage system.