Performance of replication system with small number of ip links available

An apparatus, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• at least one processor operatively coupled to the memory, the at least one processor being configured to perform the operations of:
• identifying a first process that is arranged to execute a first type-1 node and a first type-2 node of the storage system, the first type-1 node being assigned a communication link for transmitting replication data to a target system, the first type-2 node being arranged to execute I/O requests associated with a first set of addresses in an address space, and the first type-2 node being configured to transmit data replication requests to any of one or more type-1 nodes in the storage system that are assigned communication links for transmitting data to a replication system;
• identifying a second process that is arranged to execute a second type-1 node and a second type-2 node of the storage system, the second type-1 node being not being assigned any communication link for transmitting replication data to a target system, the second type-2 node being arranged to execute I/O requests associated with a second set of addresses in the address space, and the second type-2 node being configured to transmit data replication requests to any of the one or more type-1 nodes in the storage system that are assigned communication links for transmitting data to the replication system;
• and
• transferring at least one of the addresses in the first set to the second set, wherein transferring at least one of the addresses in the first set to the second set at least partially corrects for an imbalance between a first workload on the first process and a second workload on the second process, the imbalance resulting from the first type-1 node being the only one of the first type-1 node and the second type-1 node that is assigned a communication link for transmitting data to the replication system.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more processor-executable instructions, which when executed by at least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform the operations of:

• identifying a first process that is arranged to execute a first type-1 node and a first type-2 node of the storage system, the first type-1 node being assigned a communication link for transmitting replication data to a target system, the first type-2 node being arranged to execute I/O requests associated with a first set of addresses in an address space, and the first type-2 node being configured to transmit data replication requests to any of one or more type-1 nodes in the storage system that are assigned communication links for transmitting data to a replication system;
• identifying a second process that is arranged to execute a second type-1 node and a second type-2 node of the storage system, the second type-1 node being not being assigned any communication link for transmitting replication data to a target system, the second type-2 node being arranged to execute I/O requests associated with a second set of addresses in the address space, and the second type-2 node being configured to transmit data replication requests to any of the one or more type-1 nodes in the storage system that are assigned communication links for transmitting data to the replication system;
• and
• transferring at least one of the addresses in the first set to the second set, wherein transferring at least one of the addresses in the first set to the second set at least partially corrects for an imbalance between a first workload on the first process and a second workload on the second process, the imbalance resulting from the first type-1 node being the only one of the first type-1 node and the second type-1 node that is assigned a communication link for transmitting data to the replication system.