The inline backup function allows you to request a backup of a data set in a batch environment. Inline backup is a way of overcoming the problems of invoking the terminal monitor program (TMP) in the background in order to issue HBACKDS commands.

When you are invoking TMP, the HBACKDS command requires that you specify the fully qualified data set names or a filter name. In the case of a generation data group (GDG), you may not know this fully qualified data set name, and TMP does not allow you to specify a relative generation number. Also, in executing a batch job with TMP, if a data set is created (DISP=NEW), an exclusive enqueue is done on the data set name, and the enqueue is not released until the last job step referring to that data set has ended. If a job step backward references a newly created data set after the TMP job step is processed, the HBACKDS command fails.

Inline backup also allows you to back up data sets in the middle of a job. You can add a new step to a job by specifying the inline backup module as the program to start. You specify in specially named DD statements the data sets that are being backed up. Inline backup extracts the data set names associated with these DDNAMEs and then performs the backup.

The results of each data set backup attempt can be written to a specially named output data set. SNAP dumps of storage relating to inline backup can be written to a specially named output data set for certain error conditions.

Uncataloged data sets are not supported for inline backup.