Methods and apparatus are provided for managing data in a hierarchal storage subsystem. A plurality of volumes is designated as a storage group for Level 0 storage; a high threshold is established for the storage group; space is allocated for a
data set to a volume of the storage group, storing the
data set to the volume; the high threshold is compared with a total amount of space consumed by all data sets stored to volumes in the storage group; and data sets are migrated from the storage group to a Level 1 storage if the high threshold is less than or equal to the total amount of space used by all of the data sets stored to volumes in the storage group. Optionally, high threshold are assigned to each storage group and, when the space used in a storage group reaches or exceeds the high threshold, migration of data will begin from volumes in the storage group, beginning with the volume having the least
free space. Thus, contention between migration and
space allocation is reduced. Also optionally, when a volume is selected for migration, a flag is set which prevents space in the volume from being allocated to new data sets. Upon completion of the migration, the flag is cleared and allocation is allowed. Thus, contention between migration and
space allocation is avoided.