Short for Aggregate group Backup And Recovery Support, ABARS is a backup system for MVS S/390 mainframes from IBM. ABARS performs data backup and recovery processes on a predefined set of data called an aggregate. During backup processing, the data is packaged as a single entity in preparation for taking it off-site. This enables the recovery of individual applications in user-priority sequence. The original design of ABARS was for use in disaster recovery, but is also used for transfer of workloads and remote distribution of data. [Adapted from IBM DFSMShsm ABARS and Mainstar Solutions (PDF)]
