In accordance with the principles of the present invention, management of a data replication system is provided by a three-tiered arrangement. The lowest, or agent, tier comprises Common Information Model (CIM) provider objects that reside in the hosts providing the data replication service and that can make method calls on the low-level kernel routines. The middle, or logic, tier is a set of federated Java beans that communicate with each other, with the management facades and with the upper tier of the system. The upper, or presentation, tier of the inventive system comprises web-based presentation programs that can be directly manipulated by management personnel to view and control the data replication system.