Tony Thigpen wrote: >What tools are available for z/OS programs to access in real-time a >z/Linux database with full update capibilities?
>Nothing specific as to the database. Current database is Adabas but >they want to eliminate the SAG products. >Plenty of network connectivity. >They are considering using z/Linux on a separate cpu. To answer your question directly, yes, it is possible for an application running on z/OS to access a "remote" database. Exactly how you'd do that depends on the application, its runtime environment, and the database. There are many possible options, and I'd be happy to provide some specific recommendations if you provide some more information about the applications and their environment(s). For occasional, low intensity data access, it's usually fine. But you probably don't want to do this for anything that isn't occasional, low intensity. If you're going to replace ADABAS on z/OS, then the best replacement is almost certainly going to be a database running on z/OS, typically Db2 for z/OS. The performance and efficiency benefits of application and database co-location on z/OS are typically huge, massive, extraordinary, breathtaking. Pick your favorite adjective. It's what the platform is built for and thoroughly optimized to do extremely well. Linux, and especially Linux on Z, are wonderful, but they're not often a good fit in this role (data serving to z/OS applications). I recall on one occasion several years ago when a client asked a really superb capacity expert to estimate the impacts of replacing a particular database on z/OS with a database running on Linux on Z, on the same machine. That's putting the database engine as close as possible to z/OS while being logically "remote." And the answer was, yes, they could do that, and (assuming successful implementation) it would surely reduce their database licensing on z/OS to zero -- "mission accomplished" there. There were at least two problems, though. First, they'd incur the non-zero costs of the alternative database and its environment and operations. Second, they'd have to treble their z/OS and CICS capacity to have any hope of supporting the same user loads. (The expert stopped there and did not estimate possible latency-related problems and other likely operational challenges.) The client decided they didn't like the trade, although I assume the IBM salespeople hoped they'd reconsider. :-) Environments and loads vary, but the 3X estimate wasn't a particularly surprising one for core applications. ConsistADS is a popular migration path from ADABAS to Db2 for z/OS. IBM Publications SG24-8044 and REDP5154 discuss this option and several others. It might make sense to use a "penalty box" during the migration. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy Sipples IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM Z & LinuxONE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: sipp...@sg.ibm.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
