A computer implemented method includes maintaining information indicative of whether a data replication relationship between a dataset associated with the local CG (CG1) and a mirror copy of the dataset stored on a remote CG (CG2) of a remote distributed storage system is in an in-synchronization (InSync) state or an out-of-synchronization (OOS) state, determining whether a CG storage expansion process is in progress, and in response to determining the OOS state and whether the primary storage site has a failure, initiating an automatic unplanned failover (AUFO) workflow without manual intervention on the original volumes in the CG1 of a first storage cluster of the primary storage site and the original volumes in the CG2 of a second storage cluster when the CG storage expansion process is in progress with a new source volume to be a member of CG1 and a new destination volume to be a member of CG2.