Capturing snapshots of storage volumes

Abstract

A method and apparatus for capturing a snapshot of storage volumes of a data capture group are disclosed. In the method and apparatus, a request to create a data capture group may be received and processed. The data capture group may have one or more storage volumes. Upon defining the data capture group, a snapshot of the storage volumes of the data capture group may be taken.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method for creating backups, the method comprising:
 receiving a request to create a data capture group including descriptive information having identities of storage volumes of the data capture group and an identification of the data capture group;   creating the data capture group in response to receiving the request to create a data capture group;   receiving a request to backup the data capture group, wherein the request indicates whether the backup is a reference backup or a delta backup; and   for each storage volume of the data capture group:
 in response to the request to backup the data capture group indicating the backup is a reference backup, obtaining a reference backup of the storage volume, wherein the reference backup of the storage volume is derived from a complete set of data of the storage volume; and 
 in response to the request to backup the data capture group indicating the backup is a delta backup, obtaining a delta backup of the storage volume, wherein the delta backup of the storage volume is derived from differences between a complete set of data of the storage volume and a prior backup of the data of the storage volume.