Data Management

HFS

Hierarchical File System

Platform: z/VSE and VSEⁿ

HFS (Hierarchical File System) allows you to store data on the IBM z/VSE mainframe in a hierarchical manner that is similar to the system used on PCs and LINUX.

Store and retrieve any type of data—ASCII/EBCDIC, PC file types, etc.—on the mainframe transparent to applications

Use longer, more meaningful file and directory names—up to 256 bytes long—including spaces and special characters

Updates to HFS extents can be journaled for dynamic data recovery between backups

Data can be moved to and from HFS using

• FTP
• RAAD
• Entrée
• Batch processing
• User-written programs

HFS supports any number of sub-directory levels under each directory, provided the total path length does not exceed 256 characters. This structure is accessible from PCs, Macs, Linux instances, etc.

Multiple partitions and/or subtasks can access the same HFS extent for both input and output

Individual files within the HFS extent are locked as required to prevent collisions

The HFS directory can be cached, substantially reducing the number of I/Os needed to access individual files within the HFS extent

An individual HFS instance can have multiple DASD extents, so it can get to be quite large if desired (current maximum is ~133 gigabytes)

Data can be encrypted on the HFS using DES, DES3, or AES128 algorithms

Data Sheet

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