System and method for backup and restore of offline disks in mainframe computers

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request for backing up a mainframe volume associated with a mainframe computer, the mainframe volume operating in a Count Key Data (CKD) architecture, the mainframe volume having a volume serial number, referred to as a volume name;

taking a snapshot of the volume, thereby creating an offline copy of the volume;

generating a temporary name for the offline copy, the temporary name different from the volume name;

reformatting the offline copy to change its name to the temporary name;

storing in a repository at least the name and the temporary name;

bringing the offline copy with the temporary name to an online state; and

backing up the offline copy to an external storage.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the external storage is object storage.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the temporary name is different from names of other volumes associated with the mainframe computer and from names of copies of volumes associated with the mainframe computer.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is performed by a Central Processing Unit (CPU) of the mainframe computer.

5. A method comprising:

receiving a request to restore a mainframe volume associated with a mainframe computer, the mainframe volume operating in the CKD architecture, the mainframe volume having a volume serial number, referred to as a volume name;

searching a repository for the volume name to retrieve a temporary name;

using the temporary name, restoring a volume from an external storage; and

reformatting the volume to the volume name.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the external storage is object storage.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein subject to availability of multiple backups for the volume, a required backup version is selected by a user.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein subject to the request comprising additional details of a backup, searching the repository comprises searching for an entry complying with the name and with the additional details.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method is performed by a CPU of the mainframe computer.

10. A system for backup and restore mainframe data on a backup server, comprising:

a mainframe processor, the mainframe processor being adapted to perform:

receiving a request for backing up a mainframe volume associated with a mainframe computer, the mainframe volume operating in the CKD architecture, the mainframe volume having a volume serial number, referred to as a volume name;

taking a snapshot of the volume, thereby creating an offline copy of the volume;

generating a temporary name for the offline copy, the temporary name different from the volume name;

reformatting the offline copy to change its name to the temporary name;

storing in a repository at least the name and the temporary name;

bringing the offline copy with the temporary name to an online state; and

backing up the offline copy to an external storage.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the steps are performed by a CPU of the mainframe computer.

12. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium retaining program instructions, which program instructions when read by a processor, cause the processor to perform:

performing a backup operation, comprising:

receiving a request for backing up a mainframe volume associated with a mainframe computer, the mainframe volume operating in the CKD architecture, the mainframe volume having a volume serial number, referred to as a volume name;

taking a snapshot of the volume, thereby creating an offline copy of the volume;

generating a temporary name for the offline copy, the temporary name different from the volume name;

reformatting the offline copy to change its name to the temporary name;

storing in a repository at least the name and the temporary name;

bringing the offline copy with the temporary name to an online state; and

backing up the offline copy to an external storage; and

performing a restore operation, comprising:

receiving a second request to restore the mainframe volume associated with the mainframe computer, the mainframe volume operating in the CKD architecture, the mainframe volume having the volume serial number, referred to as the volume name;

searching the repository for the volume name to retrieve the temporary name;

using the temporary name, restoring the volume from an external storage; and

reformatting the volume to the volume name.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the backup operation and the restore operation are performed by a CPU of the mainframe computer.