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

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.

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.

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.