You can use the DFSMSdss DUMP command to back up volumes and data sets, and you can use the DFSMSdss RESTORE command to recover them. You can make incremental backups of your data sets by specifying a data set DUMP command with RESET and filtering on the data-set-changed indicator.

In an SMS environment, DFSMSdss saves the class names for the data sets it dumps. When you restore the data set to an SMS-managed volume, DFSMSdss invokes ACS and passes it the class names saved with the data set. Based upon this and other input from DFSMSdss (for example, class names specified with the STORCLAS or MGMTCLAS keywords), ACS assigns SMS constructs to each data set.

Because DFSMSdss restore invokes ACS, you can restore the data sets to SMS-managed volumes. Conversely, data sets backed up as SMS-managed data sets can be restored as non-SMS-managed data sets.

In addition to providing for routine backup requirements, you can use DFSMSdss to back up application data for disaster recovery and vital records purposes. You can back up all the data sets (including data that resides only on primary DASD; you cannot use DFSMSdss to process migrated data sets) that are associated with a particular application for disaster recovery or vital records by using DFSMSdss logical data set dump, and filtering on data set names. If you do not want to perform a separate dump operation for disaster recovery, you can specify more than one OUTDDNAME to create up to 255 separate backup copies when you do your routine backup. These extra copies can then be used for disaster recovery or vital records purposes. The DUMP command can also be used to archive data sets that have not been accessed for long periods of time.