Abstract: A method, system and computer-usable medium which provides a format in which data is written to a dump data set to allow use of Fast Replication technology for both backing up and restoring of both datasets and volumes. Such a format allows any data that can be captured at a track level to be written to the dump data set via Fast Replication. When using this methodology of backing up and restoring, backups should be made to devices that support Fast Replication technology and restoration of the data should be to devices which are capable of being the target of a Fast Replication for that backup device.

Abstract: A method for using a change-recording feature to perform more effective backups includes generating an initial point-in-time copy of source data residing in a storage device. The method may then perform an initial backup of the initial point-in-time copy. As changes are made to the source data, the method may record changes made to the source data after the initial point-in-time copy is generated. These changes may be stored as incremental change data. At some point, the initial point-in-time copy may be updated using the incremental change data. In order to perform an incremental backup of the updated point-in-time copy, the method may query the incremental change data to determine which changes were used to update the point-in-time copy. The method may then perform an incremental backup of the updated point-in-time copy by backing up the changes designated in the incremental change data.

Abstract: A data-allocation data-replication system includes a controller adapted to respond to back-up requests from host systems by first allocating an accumulated data set containing multiple source data sets. An index data set is then allocated incorporating index keys and other information helpful to restore the source data sets, such as locations of individual source data sets within the accumulated data set.