Associated DDM attributes are z/OS® data set attributes that are defined in DDM architecture. Examples of associated DDM attributes are file size, lock options, or end-of-file offset for byte-stream files. Associated DDM attributes are not exclusive to DDM, but can be common to other applications that access the same data sets.

DFM creates associated DDM attributes when it creates new data sets or changes the attributes of existing data sets. When copying, moving, or backing up data sets that have associated DDM attributes, it is important that you use recommended data moving utilities (see Propagating DDM Attributes).

The remainder of this section explains the applications and commands you can use to determine if a z/OS data set has associated DDM attributes, and the utilities you can use to propagate associated DDM attributes.