1. A method performed by a device of a plurality of devices in a distributed data replication system, the method comprising: storing an index of objects in the distributed data replication system, the index being replicated while the replicas of objects are stored locally by the plurality of devices in the distributed data replication system; conducting a scan of at least a portion of the index; identifying a redundant replica of the at least one of the objects based on the scan of the index; and de-duplicating the redundant replica by writing a de-duplication record to a portion of the index.