Defining logical and physical processing

DFSMSdss can perform two kinds of processing when executing COPY, DUMP, and RESTORE commands:

Logical processing operates against data sets independently of physical device format.
Physical processing moves data at the track-image level and operates against volumes, tracks, and data sets.
Each type of processing offers different capabilities and advantages.

During a restore operation, the data is processed the same way it is dumped because physical and logical dump tapes have different formats. If a data set is dumped logically, it is restored logically; if it is dumped physically, it is restored physically. A data set restore operation from a full-volume dump is a physical data set restore operation.