What is HSM?

Hierarchical Storage Management, a data storage system that

automatically moves data between high-cost and low-cost
<storage.html> <media.html>. HSM systems exist because high-
speed storage devices, such as hard disk drives
<hard_disk_drive.html>, are more expensive (per <byte.html>
stored) than slower devices, such as optical discs
<optical_disk.html> and magnetic tape drives <tape_drive.html>.
While it would be ideal to have all data available on high-speed
devices all the time, this is prohibitively expensive for many
organizations. Instead, HSM systems store the bulk of the
enterprise's data on slower devices, and then copy data to faster
disk drives when needed. In effect, HSM turns the fast disk drives
into <cache.html> for the slower mass storage devices. The HSM
system monitors the way data is used and makes best guesses as to
which data can safely be moved to slower devices and which data
should stay on the hard disks.
 HSM
• HSM is a backup and recovery product, and also a
migrate and retrieve product. It works on the
concept of a storage hierarchy, where commonly
used data is kept on fast access disk, data which
has not been referenced for a while is archived
off to compressed disk, then eventually to slower
access tape. HSM is policy based, it uses DFSMS
constructs called management classes to decide,
almost on a file by file basis, how long a file is
kept at each level in the storage hierarchy, and
how often that file gets backed up.
 HSM Commands

• Dataset Commands
• The commands that we use to manage
datasets, including
• List
• Backds
• Recover
• Bdelete
• Migrate
• Recall
• Delete
 HSM - System Commands
The operational and system commands that we
use to manage DFHSM. including
• Query
• Hold
• Release
• Cancel