Erase-on-scratch considerations

Before you specify the erase-on-scratch option for integrated catalog facility (ICF) cataloged VSAM data sets that have the ERASE attribute and have backup profiles, consider the following results:

DFSMShsm copies of ICF cataloged VSAM data sets with the ERASE attribute indicated in the RACF® profile are erased with the same erase-on-scratch support as for all other data sets.
DFSMShsm does not migrate ICF cataloged VSAM data sets that have the ERASE attribute in the catalog record. The migration fails with a return code 99 and a reason code 2 indicating that the user can remove the ERASE attribute from the catalog record and can specify the attribute in the RACF profile to obtain DFSMShsm migration and erase-on-scratch support of the data set.
ERASE status is obtained only from the original RACF profile. Backup profiles created by DFSMShsm (refer to z/OS DFSMShsm Storage Administration) are not checked. The original ERASE attribute is saved in the backup version (C) record at the time of backup and is checked at recovery time if the original RACF profile is missing.
The records in an SDSP data set are not overwritten on recall even if the SETSYS ERASEONSCRATCH command has been specified. When a data set is recalled from an SDSP data set, the records are read from the control interval and returned as a data set to the level 0 volume. When migration cleanup is next performed, the VSAM erase process reformats the control interval but does not overwrite any residual data. Erase-on-scratch is effective for SDSP data sets only when the SDSP data set itself is scratched. Refer to z/OS DFSMShsm Storage Administration for a discussion of protecting small-data-set-packing data sets.