With the purpose of achieving consistent non-synchronous copying of data from
a plurality of primary side control units to a plurality of secondary side control
units, all of the secondary side control units are connected via a loop, and each
of the secondary side control units determines guarantee time by circulating a
time added to the data received from the primary side control units via said loop
communication route. A consistent data copying is guaranteed by circulating the
determined guarantee time via the loop communication route.