Returning a file to its correct storage level in an information lifecycle-management environment

A technique for implementing policy-aware backup and restore capability in a tiered storage system. If a data set's contents are backed up from the tiered storage system to a backup storage system, metadata for the data set may also be backed up. Prior to the data set being restored from the backup storage system to the tiered storage system, the backed up metadata is restored and processed to determine a tier among the tiered storage pools to which the data set will be restored.