DATA STORAGE OBJECT CLONING IN A MULTI-APPLIANCE FEDERATION

A method of creating a clone, on a second data storage appliance of a federation, of a source storage object stored on a first data storage appliance of the federation, includes creating a snapshot (point-in-time copy) of the source storage object at the first appliance, and then performing a full copy of the snapshot from the first appliance to the second appliance to produce a copy snapshot on the second appliance. At the second appliance, the clone is created from the copy snapshot and incorporated into a federation-wide family association of the source storage object. Specific use cases include (1) creating a clone on a different appliance from a base volume, (2) migrating a clone to a different appliance from a base volume, (3) refreshing a clone from a base volume, and a base volume from a clone, across appliances.