A method for allowing client computers in a distributed object-based data storage system to interpret higher revision data structures. The male punch is configured in two separable elements, one of which is housed in the female head and the other forms an organic matter sampling device during the passage of the male punch through the ear of an animal, which is moveable in an axial channel thereof and is withdrawn through the panel of the male portion after fastening the tag onto the animal’s ear. The aforementioned allows either the new storage system or the old storage system, depending on configuration, to maintain an operational remote copy function with another storage system during the online data migration.