Author: claimsbot

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in a computing device, the program comprising:
code that, in response to receiving a data set of strings organized into a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns from a client, selects a proper subset of the data set of strings from individual rows of a randomly selected plurality of the plurality of rows corresponding to a predefined plurality of the plurality of columns for the randomly selected plurality of the plurality of rows;
code that generates a first user interface configured to present individual strings from the proper subset of the data set of strings;
code that sends data encoding the first user interface to the client;
code that, in response to receiving a plurality of substring selections from the client by way of the first user interface, identifies a plurality of selection patterns based at least in part on the plurality of substring selections and a set of pattern rules, individual selections of the plurality of substring selections corresponding to individual strings of the proper subset of the data set of strings, individual selection patterns of the plurality of selection patterns being represented separately by at least two of the individual selections of the plurality of substring selections;
code that generates a second user interface configured to present a ranked listing of the plurality of selection patterns according to a weight associated with the individual selection patterns of the plurality of selection patterns;
code that sends data encoding the second user interface to the client; and
code that, in response to obtaining a selection of one of the plurality of selection patterns from the client, processes the data set of strings by applying the one of the plurality of selection patterns to the data set of strings.
2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first user interface and the second user interface comprise network pages.
3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of selection patterns includes at least one of: a quantity of selected characters, a class of selected characters, a relative substring position within a string, or a substring in common.
4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the second user interface is further configured to present a sample application of at least one of the plurality of selection patterns to another proper subset of the data set of strings which is disjoint from the proper subset.
5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the second user interface is further configured to present at least one regular expression corresponding to the individual selection patterns.
6. A system, comprising:
at least one computing device comprising a processor and a memory; and
at least one application executable in the at least one computing device, the at least one application comprising:
logic that selects a proper subset of a set of strings, the set of strings being organized into a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, the proper subset being selected from individual rows of a randomly selected set of the plurality of rows corresponding to a predefined set of the plurality of columns for the randomly selected set of the plurality of rows;
logic that generates a first user interface that is configured to present the proper subset of the set of strings, the first user interface being further configured to obtain a plurality of substring selections, individual substring selections of the plurality of substring selections corresponding to individual strings of the proper subset of the set of strings;
logic that identifies a plurality of selection patterns based at least in part on the plurality of substring selections and a set of rules, individual selection patterns of the plurality of selection patterns being represented separately by the individual substring selections of the plurality of substring selections;
logic that generates a second user interface that is configured to present a ranked listing of the plurality of selection patterns according to a relative weight associated with the individual selection patterns of the plurality of selection patterns; and
logic that processes the set of strings by applying a selected selection pattern of the plurality of selection patterns to the set of strings.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one application further comprises:
logic that sends data encoding the first user interface to a client; and
logic that, in response to obtaining the plurality of substring selections from the client, sends data encoding the second user interface to the client.
8. The system of claim 6, wherein the set of strings is organized into a table having the plurality of rows and the plurality of columns.
9. The system of claim 6, wherein the second user interface is further configured to present a result of the individual selection patterns being applied to another proper subset of the set of strings, the other proper subset being randomly selected from the set of strings and being disjoint from the proper subset.
10. The system of claim 6, wherein the second user interface is further configured to present selection code corresponding to the individual selection patterns.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein the selection code comprises a regular expression.
12. The system of claim 6, wherein the second user interface includes a component configured to cause another proper subset of the set of strings to be selected and presented in the first user interface.
13. The system of claim 6, wherein the relative weight has a predetermined component.
14. The system of claim 6, wherein the relative weight has a dynamic component indicating a relative confidence by the logic that identifies.
15. The system of claim 6, wherein at least one of the plurality of selection patterns includes a quantity of selected characters.
16. The system of claim 6, wherein at least one of the plurality of selection patterns includes a class of selected characters.
17. The system of claim 6, wherein at least one of the plurality of selection patterns includes a relative substring position within a string.
18. The system of claim 6, wherein at least one of the plurality of selection patterns includes a substring in common.
19. A method, comprising:
receiving, via at least one of one or more computing devices, a data set of strings organized into a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns;
randomly selecting, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a proper subset of the data set of strings from at least one predefined column of the plurality of columns;
generating, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a first user interface configured to present individual strings from the proper subset of the data set of strings;
receiving, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a plurality of substring selections corresponding to the individual strings from the proper subset of the data set of strings by way of the first user interface;
identifying, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a plurality of selection patterns based at least in part on the plurality of substring selections and a set of pattern rules, individual selection patterns of the plurality of selection patterns being separately represented in individual substring selections of the plurality of substring selections;
generating, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a second user interface configured to present a ranked listing of the plurality of selection patterns according to a relative weight associated with the individual selection patterns of the plurality of selection patterns; and
processing, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the data set of strings by applying a selected selection pattern of the plurality of selection patterns to the data set of strings.
20. The method of claim 19, further comprising receiving, in the at least one computing device, a user confirmation of the selected selection pattern.
21. The method of claim 19, wherein the second user interface is further configured to present a sample application of at least one of the plurality of selection patterns to another proper subset of the data set of strings which is disjoint from the proper subset.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein the sample application includes an extraction of data from a corresponding row of the plurality of rows represented in the other proper subset according to the at least one of the plurality of selection patterns, wherein the extraction of data includes at least a portion of a string from individual columns of the at least one predefined column of the plurality of columns.
23. The method of claim 19, wherein at least one of the plurality of selection patterns includes at least one of: a quantity of selected characters, a class of selected characters, a relative substring position within a string, or a substring in common.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

Having described the invention, what is claimed is:

1. A solenoid for use in a liquid dispensing system having a dispensing gun including a valve movable relative to a dispensing orifice of the gun in response to operation of the solenoid, the solenoid comprising:
a housing;
a solenoid disposed within said housing; and
a visually identifiable color-coded indicia associated with said housing and corresponding to an operating characteristic of the solenoid.
2. The solenoid of claim 1 wherein said visually identifiable color-coded indicia comprises:
a first visually identifiable color-coded indicia associated with said housing and corresponding to an air volume capacity of the solenoid.
3. The solenoid of claim 2 wherein said visually identifiable color-coded indicia further comprises:
a second visually identifiable color-coded indicia associated with said housing and corresponding to an electrical characteristic of the solenoid.
4. Dispensing apparatus for dispensing liquid materials, comprising:
a liquid supply source;
a dispensing gun fluidly connected to said liquid supply source and having a valve movable relative to a dispensing orifice of said gun;
a solenoid operable to control movement of said valve; and
a visually identifiable color-coded indicia associated with said solenoid and corresponding to an operating characteristic of said solenoid.
5. The dispensing apparatus of claim 4 wherein said visually identifiable color-coded indicia comprises:
a first visually identifiable color-coded indicia associated with said solenoid and corresponding to an air volume capacity of said solenoid.
6. The dispensing apparatus of claim 5 wherein said visually identifiable color-coded indicia further comprises:
a second visually identifiable color-coded indicia associated with said solenoid and corresponding to an electrical characteristic of said solenoid.
7. A method of indicating an operating characteristic of a solenoid used in a liquid dispensing system having a dispensing gun including a valve movable relative to a dispensing orifice of the gun in response to operation of the solenoid, comprising the steps of:
providing a visually identifiable color-coded indicia on a surface of a housing containing the solenoid that corresponds to the operating characteristic of the solenoid.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the visually identifiable color-coded indicia comprises:
a first visually identifiable color-coded indicia located on a surface of the housing that corresponds to an air volume capacity of the solenoid.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein said visually identifiable color-coded indicia further comprises:
a second visually identifiable color-coded indicia located on a surface of the housing that corresponds to an electrical characteristic of the solenoid.

What is claimed is:

1. An information recording method for recording information on an optical information recording medium according to a mark length recording scheme in which a temporal length of a recording mark is represented as nT where n denotes a natural number and T denotes a basic clock period, wherein:
the recording mark is formed by a multi-pulse sequence, which is increased by one pulse with an irradiation power Pw for every increase of 2T in the temporal length nT; and
a recording strategy, used in forming the recording mark, controls the multi-pulse sequence so that:
when n4, the fall of a first pulse of the multi-pulse sequence is synchronized with the basic clock; and
when n is an odd number and n7, a period from the fall of the first pulse to the fall of a second pulse in the multi-pulse sequence is arranged to be greater than 2T and in synchronization with the basic clock, periods of pulses after the second pulse except for a last pulse of the multi-pulse sequence are arranged to be 2T, and a period from the fall of a second to last pulse to the fall of the last pulse, denoted as T1o, is set to T1o(21o)T where 0<1o1.
2. The information recording method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:
the period from the fall of the first pulse to the fall of the second pulse when n is an odd number and n7 is arranged to be 2.5T.
3. The information recording method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:
the recording strategy, used in forming the recording mark, controls the multi-pulse sequence so that when n is an even number and n6, periods of the pulses after the first pulse of the multi-pulse sequence are set to be 2T, and the period from the fall of the second to last pulse to the fall of the last pulse, denoted as T1e, is set to T1e(21e)T where 0<1e1.
4. The information recording method as claimed in claim 3, wherein 1e is set to 1e0.
5. The information recording method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:
the recording strategy, used in forming the recording mark, controls the multi-pulse sequence so that when a time from the rise of a logical data pulse to the rise of the first pulse of the multi-pulse sequence when n4 is denoted as Td1 and a time from the rise of a logical data pulse to the rise of the first pulse of the multi-pulse sequence when n3 is denoted as Td13, Td13Td12T where 0<21.
6. The information recording method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:
light with an irradiation power Pb is irradiated in between the pulses with the irradiation power Pw in the multi-pulse sequence where Pw>Pb.
7. The information recording method as claimed in claim 6, wherein:
light with an irradiation power Pe is irradiated to record a mark space where Pw>Pe>Pb.
8. The information recording method as claimed in claim 7, wherein:
the recording strategy, used in forming the recording mark, controls the multi-pulse sequence so that:
a last off pulse with the irradiation power Pb is added after the irradiation of the last pulse with the irradiation power Pw in the multi-pulse sequence;
a pulse with the irradiation power Pe is added after the last off pulse with the irradiation power Pb; and
an interval between the rise of the pulse with the irradiation power Pe and the fall of a logical data pulse when n4 is set to Td2 where 1TTd21T, and an interval between the rise of the pulse with the irradiation power Pe and the fall of a logical data pulse when n3 is set to Td2 where 1TTd21T.
9. The information recording method as claimed in claim 8, wherein:
the recording strategy, used in forming the recording mark, controls the multi-pulse sequence so that:
when an irradiation time of the irradiation power Pw of an mth pulse (where m is a natural number), which corresponds to the last pulse of the multi-pulse sequence, is denoted as Ton(n, m), and an irradiation time of the irradiation power Pw of a pulse other than the mth pulse is denoted as Ton(n, i) where i is a value within a range of 1 through m1, all the irradiation times Ton(n, i) of the multi-pulse sequence, other than the irradiation time when n3 and the irradiation time of the last pulse when n is an odd number and n5, are set equal to Ton(n, i)Tmp where Tmp is a constant and 0.5TTmp1.5T; and
the irradiation time of the last pulse when n is an odd number and n5, denoted as Ton(n, m)T1p, is set to T1pTmp3T where 031.
10. The information recording method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the recording strategy, used in forming the recording mark, controls the multi-pulse sequence so that T1p and Tmp are arranged to be fixed values regardless of the optical information recording medium.
11. The information recording method as claimed in claim 9, wherein:
the recording strategy, used in forming the recording mark, controls the multi-pulse sequence so that:
when differing scanning velocities vvL and vvH are used in the recording where vL<vH, the basic clock periods T corresponding to the scanning velocities vL and vH are denoted as T(vL) and T(vH), respectively, a line density is fixed to obtain a relationship vLT(vL)vHT(vH), the irradiation time Tmp upon recording at the scanning velocity vL is denoted as Tmp(vL), and the irradiation time Tmp upon recording at the scanning velocity vH is denoted as Tmp(vH), the relationships between the irradiation times corresponding to the differing scanning velocities vL and vH satisfy conditions Tmp(vH)<Tmp(vL) and Tmp(vH)T(vH)>Tmp(vL)T(vL).
12. The information recording method as claimed in claim 11, wherein:
the recording strategy, used in forming the recording mark, controls the multi-pulse sequence so that:
when a minimum scanning velocity for the recording is denoted as v0, a basic clock period corresponding to the minimum scanning velocity v0 is denoted as T0, a given scanning velocity v is expressed as vv0 (where is a real number greater than or equal to 1), and a corresponding basic clock period T can be expressed as TT0, the irradiation time Tmp of a pulse can be expressed as a function of :

Tmp()T()ab
where a and b are constants, 0.1a0.4, and 0.1b0.4.
13. The information recording method as claimed in claim 11, wherein a relationship Tmp(vH)Tmp(vL)Tmp(vH)T(vL) is obtained where Tmp(v) denotes the irradiation time Tmp when n3.
14. The information recording method as claimed in claim 11, wherein Td1T(v), Td2T(v), and Td2T(v) are fixed regardless of the scanning velocity v.
15. The information recording method as claimed in claim 11, wherein 1oT(v), 2T(v), and 3T(v) are fixed regardless of the scanning velocity v.
16. An information recording apparatus that records information on an optical information recording medium according to a mark length recording scheme in which a temporal length of a recording mark is represented as nT where n denotes a natural number and T denotes a basic clock period, said information recording apparatus comprising:
a rotation drive structure that rotates the optical information recording medium;
a laser light source that generates a light beam, which is irradiated on the optical information recording medium;
a light source drive unit that administers the laser light source to emit light;
a light emission waveform control unit that controls the light source drive unit when a recording strategy relating to a light emission waveform of the light beam generated by the laser light source is set; and
a speed control unit that controls a relative scanning velocity between the rotation of the optical information recording medium and the light beam irradiated on said optical information recording medium, wherein:
the light emission waveform control unit uses the recording strategy to control the light emission waveform so that:
when n4, the fall of a first pulse of the multi-pulse sequence is synchronized with the basic clock; and
when n is an odd number and n7, a period from the fall of the first pulse to the fall of a second pulse in the multi-pulse sequence is arranged to be greater than 2T and in synchronization with the basic, clock, periods of pulses after the second pulse except for a last pulse of the multi-pulse sequence are arranged to be 2T, and a period from the fall of a second to last pulse to the fall of the last pulse, denoted as T1o, is set to T1o(21o)T where 0<1o1.
17. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein:
the light emission waveform control unit controls the period from the fall of the first pulse to the fall of the second pulse when n is an odd number and n7 to be 2.5T.
18. The information recording method as claimed in claim 16, wherein:
the light emission waveform control unit uses the recording strategy to control the light emission waveform so that when n is an even number and n6, periods of the pulses after the first pulse of the multi-pulse sequence are set to be 2T, and the period from the fall of the second to last pulse to the fall of the last pulse, denoted as T1e, is set to T1e(21e)T where 0<1e1.
19. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein the light emission waveform control unit sets 1e to 1e0.
20. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein:
the light emission waveform control unit uses the recording strategy to control the light emission waveform so that when a time from the rise of a logical data pulse to the rise of the first pulse of the multi-pulse sequence when n4 is denoted as Td1 and a time from the rise of a logical data pulse to the rise of the first pulse of the multi-pulse sequence when n3 is denoted as Td13, Td13Td12T where 0<21.
21. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein:
the light emission waveform control unit irradiates light with an irradiation power Pb between the pulses with the irradiation power Pw in the multi-pulse sequence where Pw>Pb.
22. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein:
the light emission waveform control unit irradiates light with an irradiation power Pe to record a mark space where Pw>Pe>Pb.
23. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 22, wherein:
the light emission waveform control unit uses the recording strategy to control the light emission waveform so that:
a last off pulse with the irradiation power Pb is added after the irradiation of the last pulse with the irradiation power Pw in the multi-pulse sequence;
a pulse with the irradiation power Pe is added after the last off pulse with the irradiation power Pb; and
an interval between the rise of the pulse with the irradiation power Pe and the fall of a logical data pulse when n4 is set to Td2 where 1TTd21T, and an interval between the rise of the pulse with the irradiation power Pe and the fall of a logical data pulse when n3 is set to Td2 where 1TTd21T.
24. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 23, wherein:
the light emission waveform control unit uses the recording strategy to control the light emission waveform so that:
when an irradiation time of the irradiation power Pw of an mth pulse (where m is a natural number), which corresponds to the last pulse of the multi-pulse sequence, is denoted as Ton(n, m), and an irradiation time of the irradiation power Pw of a pulse other than the mth pulse is denoted as Ton(n, i) where i is a value within a range of 1 through m1, all the irradiation times Ton(n, i) of the multi-pulse sequence, other than the irradiation time when n3 and the irradiation time of the last pulse when n is an odd number and n5, are set equal to Ton(n, i)Tmp where Tmp is a constant and 0.5TTmp1.5T; and
the irradiation time of the last pulse when n is an odd number and n>5, denoted as Ton(n, m)T1p, is set to T1pTmp3T where 031.
25. The information recording method as claimed in claim 24, wherein the light emission waveform control unit uses the recording strategy to control the light emission waveform so that T1p and Tmp are arranged to be fixed values regardless of the optical information recording medium.
26. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 24, wherein:
the light emission waveform control unit uses the recording strategy to control the light emission waveform so that:
when differing scanning velocities vvL and vvH are used in the recording where vL<vH, the basic clock periods T corresponding to the scanning velocities vL and vH are denoted as T(vL) and T(vH), respectively, a line density is fixed to obtain a relationship vLT(vL)vHT(vH), the irradiation time Tmp upon recording at the scanning velocity vL is denoted as Tmp(vL), and the irradiation time Tmp upon recording at the scanning velocity vH is denoted as Tmp(vH), the relationships between the irradiation times corresponding to the differing scanning velocities vL and vH satisfy conditions Tmp(vH)<Tmp(vL) and Tmp(vH)T(vH)>Tmp(vL)T(vL).
27. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 26, wherein:
the light emission waveform control unit uses the recording strategy to control the light emission waveform so that:
when a minimum scanning velocity for the recording is denoted as v0, a basic clock period corresponding to the minimum scanning velocity v0 is denoted as T0, a given scanning velocity v is expressed as vv0 (where is a real number greater than or equal to 1), and a corresponding basic clock period T is expressed as TT0, the irradiation time Tmp of a pulse can be expressed as a function of :

Tmp()T()ab
where a and b are constants, 0.1a0.4, and 0.1b0.4.
28. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 26, wherein the light emission waveform control unit establishes a relationship Tmp(vH)Tmp(vL)Tmp(vH)Tmp(vL) where Tmp(v) denotes the irradiation time Tmp when n3.
29. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 26, wherein the light emission waveform control unit maintains fixed values for Td1T(v), Td2T(v), and Td2T(v) regardless of the scanning velocity v.
30. The information recording apparatus as claimed in claim 26, wherein the light emission waveform control unit maintains a fixed value for 1oT(v), 2T(v), and 3T(v) regardless of the scanning velocity v.
31. An optical information recording medium on which information is recorded using an information recording method according to a mark length recording scheme in which a temporal length of a recording mark is represented as nT where n denotes a natural number and T denotes a basic clock period, wherein:
the recording mark is formed by a multi-pulse sequence, which is increased by one pulse with an irradiation power Pw for every increase of 2T in the temporal length nT; and
a recording strategy, used in forming the recording mark, controls the multi-pulse sequence so that:
when n4, the fall of a first pulse of the multi-pulse sequence is synchronized with the basic clock; and
when n is an odd number and n7, a period from the fall of the first pulse to the fall of a second pulse in the multi-pulse sequence is arranged to be greater than 2T and in synchronization with the basic clock, periods of pulses after the second pulse except for a last pulse of the multi-pulse sequence are arranged to be 2T, and a time from the fall of a second to last pulse to the fall of the last pulse, denoted as T1o, is set to T1o(21o)T where 0<1o1; wherein
information of 1o as a parameter for determining the time T1o is preformatted on the optical information recording medium.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A data replication system, comprising:
a data storage library having a plurality of source data sets;
a plurality of host computers;
a processor adapted to:
receive at least a first backup request from a first of said plurality of host computers and a second backup request from a second of said plurality of host computers, wherein said first backup request requests a first source data set to be backed up and said second backup request requests a second source data set to be backed up;
allocate an accumulated data set, and an index data set;
copy at least said first source data set and said second source data set to the accumulated data set such that the accumulated data set includes at least said first source data set and said second source data set;
calculate index information corresponding to the at least said first source data set and said second source data set copied to the accumulated data set;
write the index information to the index data set;
transmit the accumulated data set to at least said first of said plurality of host computers and said second of said plurality of host computers, such that each of said plurality of host computers requesting backup receives the entire accumulated data set; and
transmit the index data set to at least said first of said plurality of host computers and said second of said plurality of host computers such that each of said plurality of host computers requesting backup receives the entire index data set.
2. The data replication system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further adapted to calculate header information corresponding to the at least said first source data set and said second source data set that have been copied to the accumulated data set and to write the header information to the accumulated data set.
3. The data replication system of claim 2, wherein the header information comprises the number of tracks occupied by the accumulated data set in the data storage library.
4. The data replication system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further adapted to calculate an index key corresponding to the at least said first source data set and said second source data set that have been copied to the accumulated data set and to write the index key to the index data set.
5. The data replication system of claim 4, wherein the index data set includes the starting and ending track of each source data set included in the accumulated data set.
6. The data replication system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further adapted to copy at least said first source data set and said second source data set to the accumulated data set by way of transferring source data sets, in sets of tracks of data by fast replication, to the accumulated data set.
7. A method of replicating data, comprising the steps of:
receiving at least a first backup request from a first of a plurality of host computers and a second backup request from a second of said plurality of host computers, wherein said first backup request requests a first source data set to be backed up and said second backup request requests a second source data set to be backed up;
creating an accumulated data set;
copying at least said first source data set and said second source data set to the accumulated data set such that the accumulated data set includes at least said first source data set and said second source data set;
calculating index information corresponding to at least said first source data set and said second source data set copied to the accumulated data set;
creating an index data set;
copying the index information to the index data set;
transmitting the accumulated data set to at least said first of said plurality of host computers and said second of said plurality of host computers, such that each of said plurality of host computers requesting backup receives the entire accumulated data set; and
transmitting the index data set to at least said first of said plurality of host computers and said second of said plurality of host computers such that each of said plurality of host computers requesting backup receives the entire index data set.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the index information includes an index key.
9. The method of claim 7, wherein the index information includes information useful to restore at least said first source data set or said second source data set from the accumulated data set.
10. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of calculating header information associated with at least said first source data set and said second source data set copied to the accumulated data set and writing the header information to the accumulated data set.
11. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory data storage medium, said non-transitory data storage medium including a set of machine-readable instructions that are executable by a processing device to implement an algorithm, said algorithm comprising the steps of:
receiving at least a first backup request from a first of a plurality of host computers and a second backup request from a second of said plurality of host computers, wherein said first backup request requests a first source data set to be backed up and said second backup request requests a second source data set to be backed up;
creating an accumulated data set;
copying at least said first source data set and said second source data set to the accumulated data set such that the accumulated data set includes at least said first source data set and said second source data set;
calculating index information corresponding to at least said first source data set and said second source data set copied to the accumulated data set;
creating an index data set;
copying the index information to the index data set;
transmitting the accumulated data set to at least said first of said plurality of host computers and said second of said plurality of host computers, such that each of said plurality of host computers requesting backup receives the entire accumulated data set; and
transmitting the index data set to at least said first of said plurality of host computers and said second of said plurality of host computers such that each of said plurality of host computers requesting backup receives the entire index data set.
12. The article of manufacture of claim 11, wherein the index information includes an index key.
13. The article of manufacture of claim 11, wherein the index information includes information useful to restore at least said first source data set or said second source data set from the accumulated data set.
14. The article of manufacture of claim 11, further comprising the steps of calculating header information associated with at least said first source data set or said second source data set copied to the accumulated data set and writing the header information to the accumulated data set.
15. A method of providing a service for replicating data, comprising integrating computer-readable code into a computing system, wherein the computer-readable code in combination with the computing system is capable of performing the following steps:
receiving at least a first backup request from a first of a plurality of host computers and a second backup request from a second of said plurality of host computers, wherein said first backup request requests a first source data set to be backed up and said second backup request requests a second source data set to be backed up;
creating an accumulated data set;
copying at least said first source data set and said second source data set to the accumulated data set such that the accumulated data set includes at least said first source data set and said second source data set;
calculating index information corresponding to at least said first source data set and said second source data set copied to the accumulated data set;
creating an index data set;
copying the index information to the index data set;
transmitting the accumulated data set to at least said first of said plurality of host computers and said second of said plurality of host computers, such that each of said plurality of host computers requesting backup receives the entire accumulated data set; and
transmitting the index data set to at least said first of said plurality of host computers and said second of said plurality of host computers such that each of said plurality of host computers requesting backup receives the entire index data set.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the index information includes an index key.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein the index information includes information useful to restore at least said first source data set or said second source data set from the accumulated data set.
18. The method of claim 15, further comprising the steps of calculating header information associated with at least said first source data set or said second source data set copied to the accumulated data set and writing the header information to the accumulated data set.