FastTrack

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Overview

Imagine being able to turn back time, and restore a previous version of your PopUp in seconds. FastTrack offers a guaranteed way to go back to the last working version of your PopUp environment, no matter how badly it's broken.

With FastTrack, you can take a snapshot of your entire PopUp at anytime, then rollback your environment to one of your previous snapshots on-demand. Current changes are not lost either, so you can jump back and forth between snapshots and the latest changes to your heart's content, without worrying about losing work.

• Building or configuring a new PopUp? Snapshot as you go so that you can rollback if anything should go wrong, and you don't lose your work.
• Testing a new feature? Snapshot before you start testing - that initial snapshot can be used time and time again to provide a clean test environment for test reruns, with no test setup activities required.
• Upgrading a subsystem? Snapshot the current state before you upgrade so that you can compare the old and new versions side by side (2 PopUps are needed for this).
• Doing development? Snapshot before and during your development so you are empowered to innovate and try new things and not worry about breaking your PopUp. If you do, just rollback to a previous snapshot, then continue to innovate.

What's more, with FastTrack you can send any snapshot to a remote PopUp. This essentially allows you to clone an entire z/OS environment in seconds. Find out more here.

Data Compression

PopUp Mainframe with FastTrack provides compression to shrink data footprints by an average of one-third (for example, 10 TB data gets compressed to around 3 TB approximately). The type of data in the PopUp DASD volumes affects the compression ratio - typically the compression ratio is higher with text or char data than binary data.

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FastTrack Installation

Pre-requisites

All PopUps built after August 2025 are FastTrack-ready (the necessary pre-requisites for FastTrack are included). This includes PopUp Z 3.1Rb and PopUp X 3.1Rb. If you would like to retro-fit FastTrack into an existing PopUp, please get in touch with the PopUp Support Team.

Installation

Please ensure your PopUp is NOT running when executing the install update-fast-track-vX and install-fast-track. If PopUp is running, you can:

• execute ./shutdown (as ibmsys1 user in the home directory)
• or fast-track shutdown (if FastTrack is already installed)

To install or update FastTrack:

1. PopUp will provide you with an update package update-fast-track-vX.zip (with 'X' being the latest version)
2. Copy the package to your PopUp instance to the home directory (default is /home/ibmsys1)
3. Unzip the package unzip update-fast-track-vX.zip
4. Run chmod 755 update-fast-track-vX to make it executable
5. After ensuring that your PopUp is NOT running, execute./update-fast-track-vX The update package will do the following:
   - move existing ~/fast-track directory (if any) to ~/.fast-track-${timestamp}
   - unpack the tarball into ~/fast-track
   - suggest the user runs ~/install-fast-track
   
6. Install by running install-fast-track
   The install script will;
   - run install-dependencies to add dependencies to yum / apt (RHEL subscription may be required)
   - run ~/fast-track/support/setup-existing-zpool to create the required storage pools for FastTrack
   
   

The update package update-fast-track-vX can be run safely for each update provided the PopUp has been shutdown before execution.

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FastTrack User Commands

FastTrack Help

Help displays the current commmands and options available to the user.

fast-track help

FastTrack Status/Information

Display current verion of FastTrack.

fast-track version

Display current status.
The status tells you which branch you are currently on, last snapshot, datapool information and last IPLs time, and if your PopUp is currently running or offline.

fast-track status

Display a list of all branches. The list command gives you a list of all branches and snapshots as well as total storage, used storage and free storage. Each branch has a message that explains the reason for the branch for example 'cloned from snapshot root@initial at install' tells us that branch 001 is the initial branch created at install time.

fast-track list

FastTrack Start and Stop Commands

Start the FastTrack PopUp.

fast-track start

Stop the FastTrack PopUp.

fast-track shutdown

FastTrack Snapshot

Take a snapshot of the FastTrack PopUp.

A snapshot will shutdown the PopUp to ensure no work is in progress and ensures we have a consistent point-in-time. The user is prompted to ensure they want to go ahead. If a prompt is not required the '-f' option is provided to skip the prompt, which is useful for automated snapshots.

Snapshots can also be taken if PopUp is not running. FastTrack checks the status of the PopUp to determine what happens after the snapshot. If the PopUp is running before the snapshot, the default behaviour is to start it after a snapshot, unless you provide the '-S' option. If the PopUp is not running before the snapshot, the PopUp will not be started after the snapshot.

You can provide a comment/tag for the snapshot enclosed in quotes, for example 'BR1 SS1 - First snapshot'. The maximum comment length is 64 characters, if you do not provide a comment, a default comment will be used. You can provide a snapshot name after the comment, for example 'BR001SS001'. The maximum number of characters for a snapshot name is 32, if you do not provide a snapshot name, a default name will be used.

Note: If the devmap is updated (for example, adding a volume, upgrading to a different version of z/OS), a new snapshot needs to be taken to ensure that the devmap changes on that branch are saved, otherwise they may be lost.

fast-track snapshot [-f] [-S] comment snapshot-name

FastTrack Switch

Switch allows you to switch to another snapshot or branch. When switching to a snapshot a new branch is created, which allows you to return to your current branch at a later point. When switching to a branch HEAD you return to the latest point on that branch and a new branch is NOT created.

The PopUp will need to be shutdown when switching and the user will need to confirm this when prompted unless the '-f' flag is used. The '-S' option can be used if you do NOT want the PopUp to be restarted after the switch.

The screenshot below shows us switching back to Branch 001, snapshot BR001SS002. Note that branch 004 has been created, with a comment providing info on the snapshot used and the time when the snapshot was created.

fast-track switch [-f] [-S] target-branch target-snapshot-or-HEAD

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Provision Additional Instances of FastTrack PopUp

You can send ANY snapshot to a remote FastTrack-enabled PopUp, and instantly have another identical PopUp environment available. Example scenario:

• Setup a PopUp and load it with your application data
• test and validate this PopUp version. Call this the baseline
• Once the baseline PopUp has been validated, take a snapshot
• send this snapshot to a remote PopUp to have an instantly available clone of the baseline
• this baseline snapshot can be sent to as many remote PopUps as you need
• each one of the remote PopUps can now function completely independently, and can use the FastTrack snapshot capability too.

Note: each PopUp will need a license in order to IPL.

Setup-send

This is a one-time ssh setup for sending a snapshot to a remote PopUp instance. A local ssh key is created if needed.

Connectivity requirements:

• The remote PopUp needs to be pingable from the source PopUp (configuration might be required for Azure instances)
• the public ssh key required to login to the remote host must be available on the source PopUp.

fast-track setup-send remote-host

Send

This command sends a snapshot to a remote FastTrack PopUp instance. The speed of the transfer will depend on the network.

Once the transfer of the snapshot file is complete, on the remote PopUp you can run the fast-track list command, and you will see the transferred snapshot listed under a new branch. The transfer does not affect z/OS on either the source or remote PopUps, and work can continue as normal on both PopUps. The PopUp is NOT automatically restarted on the remote instance. When you are ready to switch to the newly transferred snapshot on the remote PopUp, run the fast-track switch command, detailed above.

fast-track send branch snapshot remote-host

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Branch and Snapshot Administration

These commands will probably not necessary in day-to-day use of a PopUp, but are described here for clarity.

Delete Snapshot

This command allows you to delete any snapshots you no longer require. Snapshots are 'cheap' and do not use much disk space, so it is unlikely you will need to delete them. However, you can if you wish.

A warning prompt is presented to the user before the snapshot is deleted. The PopUp is not shutdown with this command.

fast-track delete-snapshot branch snapshot

Delete Branch

The 'delete-branch' command allows you to delete any branches you no longer require. Branches, like snapshots, are 'cheap' in terms of disk space, and it is unlikey you will need to delete them. However, you can if you wish.

FastTrack will not allow you to delete your current branch or a branch that has been used to create another branch. A warning prompt is presented to the user before the snapshot is deleted. The PopUp is not shutdown with this command.

fast-track delete-branch branch

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Page last revised on: 2026-02-04