Deleting expired data sets

If the EXPIREDDATASETS(SCRATCH) parameter is specified in the SETSYS command, DFSMShsm deletes any non-VSAM data set whose VTOC entry shows that the data set has passed its expiration date and any VSAM data set whose catalog entry shows that the data set has passed its expiration date. The management class expiration attributes control the expiration of non-VSAM data sets that do not have a valid expiration date in their data set VTOC and VSAM data sets that do not have a valid expiration date in their base cluster catalog entry.
Note: For multivolume non-VSAM data sets, DFSMShsm looks at the VTOC of the first volume.

If concurrent copy was used to back up the data set and a system failure or cancel of DFSMShsm occurred after the concurrent copy session was established, then the data-set-changed indicator can be off even though the data set was not successfully backed up. This can result in the data set prematurely meeting the expiration criteria.

DFSMShsm provides a patch byte that enables users to override the requirement that an SMS-managed data set have a backup copy before it is expired. For more information about this patch, see the topic about tuning DFSMShsm in z/OS DFSMShsm Implementation and Customization Guide.

DFSMShsm deletes rolled-off generation data sets that meet either of the following conditions, regardless of the EXPIREDDATASETS parameter of the SETSYS command.
Note: DFSMShsm deletes active generation data sets in the same way it deletes non-GDS data sets.