Backup considerations for the control data sets and the journal

The DFSMShsm control data sets and journal are backed up at the beginning of automatic backup processing. To prevent the control data sets and the journal from also being backed up as part of volume backup processing, ensure that the control data sets and journal are backed up only with the SETSYS CDSVERSIONBACKUP command.

If your control data sets are on SMS-managed volumes, ensure that they are backed up only with the CDSVERSIONBACKUP command (and not as part of user data set backup) by:

Placing the control data sets on volumes whose storage group is defined with
AUTO BACKUP ===> NO

or
Associating the control data sets with a management class whose attributes are
AUTO BACKUP ===> N

Additionally, if you want to back up the control data sets using concurrent copy, ensure that the control data sets are associated with the BACKUP COPY TECHNIQUE management class attribute of REQUIRED(R), PREFERRED (P), VIRTUALREQUIRED (VR), VIRTUALPREFERRED (VP), CACHEREQUIRED (CR), or CACHEPREFERRED (CP).

If your control data sets are on non-SMS-managed volumes, ensure that they are backed up only with the CDSVERSIONBACKUP command (and not as part of user data set backup) by specifying the ALTERDS command.

Related reading:

In addition to the considerations in this topic, you should also review Improving performance of CDS and journal backup.
For more information about CDS and journal backup and using the SETSYS CDSVERSIONBACKUP command, see z/OS DFSMShsm Storage Administration.