Using NFS, you can access z/OS conventional MVS™ data sets from a client workstation, personal computer, or any client system using software for the NFS protocol.

In MVS, a file is called a data set. The NFS allows client users to mount z/OS conventional MVS data sets from their workstations. It presents the information to them in the form of a UNIX (or AIX®) file, though the information is actually stored on an MVS-owned DASD.

The files for an operating system are organized into a file system. The UNIX environment use a file system that is a hierarchy of directories. z/OS conventional MVS, in contrast to z/OS UNIX, uses a non-hierarchical file system in which groups of data sets are referred to by specifying a high-level qualifier (HLQ).

The MVS HLQ can include the first (leftmost) qualifier of data sets, or the first and second qualifiers, or the first, second, and third qualifiers, and so on. For example, SMITH is the HLQ for the files named SMITH.TEST.DATA and SMITH.PROJ7.SCHED, while SMITH.TEST is the HLQ of SMITH.TEST.DATA and SMITH.TEST.DOCS.