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System Managed Storage Concepts and Components 33
• Automated disk space management
SMS has the facility to automatically reclaim space which is allocated to old
and unused data sets. Policies can be defined that determine how long an
unused data set are allowed to reside on level 0 volumes (active data).
Redundant or expired data can be removed by the process of migration to
other volumes (disk or tape), or the data can be deleted. Allocated but unused
space can be automatically released, which is then available for new
allocations and active data sets.
• Improved data availability management
With SMS, different backup requirements can be provided for data residing on
the same primary volume. Therefore, all data on a single volume can be
treated independently. The HSM component can be used to automatically
back up data. The ABARS facility can be used to group data sets into logical
components, so that the group is backed up at the same time, allowing for
recovery of an application.
• Simplified data movement
SMS permits the movement of data to new volumes without the necessity for
users to amend their JCL. Because users in a DFSMS environment do not
need to specify the unit and volume which contains their data, it does not
matter to them if their data resides on a specific volume or device type. This
allows the replacement of old devices with minimum intervention from the
user.
System determined block sizes can be utilized to automatically reblock
sequential and partitioned data sets that can be reblocked.