DFSMShsm provides automatic backup facilities for HFS data sets. You can back up mountable file systems by periodically backing up the HFS data sets that contain them; the data sets can be restored if necessary. DFSMShsm is also used for migrating and restoring unmounted file systems.

You can manually back up a mountable file system, including the root file system, periodically with DFSMSdss data set dumps. To do this, issue the DFSMSdss DUMP command. This quiesces activity against the specified HFS data set, then invokes backup processing. When the backup is complete, the file system is unquiesced and user activity can resume.

Retain periodic DFSMSdss data set dumps of file systems in case a program fails and damages files and directories. Keep this backup in another area or different building in case the computer site experiences physical damage.

There is no facility for automatically backing up individual files within an HFS data set. You can manually back up files with the PAX, CPIO, and TAR commands.

For more information on using DFSMSdss, refer to the DFSMSdss section of z/OS DFSMSdfp Storage Administration.