In my previous post I shared a way to execute operator command from a batch job using Rexx and SDSF. That is of course a bit cumbersome if you just want to fire off a fixed operator command.
Therefore here the simplest way to execute an operator command:
https://github.com/execpgm/execpgm-assets/blob/master/Tools/OperatorCommandJCL.txt
//...jobcard //EXECCMD EXEC PGM=IEFBR14 // COMMAND 'D A,L'
One of the many way to execute an operator command from a batch rexx program.
With this solution here, with Rexx and SDSF, you can embed the commands in more complex business logic, and use Rexx variables to dynamically establish values for the commands to be issued.
By the way I have started a repository on GitHub on which I will share assets in the future.
https://github.com/execpgm/execpgm-assets
I have added this tool here:
https://github.com/execpgm/execpgm-assets/tree/master/Tools
Direct link:
https://github.com/execpgm/execpgm-assets/blob/master/Tools/OperatorCommandSDSFbatch.txt
//GENER EXEC PGM=IEBGENER
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSIN DD ,BLKSIZE=800,LRECL=80
GENERATE
LABELS DATA=ALL
/*
//SYSUT1 DD *
/* REXX /
RC=ISFCALLS('ON')
YOURSTC = "MYSTC"
ADDRESS SDSF "ISFEXEC '/P "YOURSTC"'"
ISFDELAY="5" /* REPLY IS IN STEM ISFULOG. */
/*
//SYSUT2 DD DSNAME=&&DS1(CMD),DISP=(NEW,PASS),
// UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(TRK,(5,,2))
//*
//RDWRJ EXEC PGM=IKJEFT01
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSPROC DD DISP=SHR,DSN=&&DS1
//SYSTSPRT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSTSIN DD *
CMD
/*
//
Reg Harbeck wrote an excellent article in Destination z, Overcoming IBM Z Inertia, in which encourages IBM Z (mainframe) users to take action on modernizing their mainframe.
The path of action Harbeck describes is to assign new mainframers (RePro’s) with the task to find and document what the current mainframe solutions in place are expected to do, and to work with the organisation to see what needs to retired, replaced or contained.
In other words task a new generation with the mainframe portfolio renewal, and not leave this to the old generation, who are “surviving until they retire while rocking the boat as little as possible” (hard words from Harbeck but it is time to get people in action).
In additional to the general approach Harbeck describes I think it is important to assure senior management support on a level as high as possible. Doing so you prevent that the priority of this program is too easily watered down by day-to-day priorities and you assure perceived or real “impossibilities” and roadblocks are moved out of the way resolutely. So:
It will be an investment and, according to the “survivors” never be as efficient as before, but one very important thing it will be: fit for the future.
Learn mainframe, z/OS and Linux for Z on a shoestring.
Let me know if you have any updates or additions to the list.
Here’s What Happens When an 18 Year Old Buys a Mainframe
z/OS introductory video course
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks.nsf/redbookabstracts/crse0304.html?Open
The ABCs of System Programming redbooks
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246981.html?Open
IBM z/OS Basic Skills page in Knowledge Center.
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/zosbasics/com.ibm.zos.zbasics/lcmain.html
Introduction to the new mainframe
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246366.html?Open
RelevantZ site
http://relevantz.ibmsystemsmag.com/ibm-systems-relevant-z
IBM Z Youtube
Love mainframe
Open source initiatives
Zowe
https://www.openmainframeproject.org/
z/OS Introduction and Workshop
http://dtsc.dfw.ibm.com/MVSDS/’HTTPD2.APPS.ZOSCLASS.SHTML(ZOSCLASS)’
Master the mainframe:
https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/education/master-the-mainframe
Free training at HPI
https://open.hpi.de/courses/mainframes2018
Many tutorials on Mainframetechhelp
https://www.mainframestechhelp.com/
Tutorialspoint on mainframe
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/mainframe_tutorials.htm
Mainframe Playground
https://mainframeplayground.neocities.org/
Introduction to TSO/ISPF
https://www.tutorialbrain.com/mainframe/tso_ispf/
Introduction to JCL
https://www.tutorialbrain.com/mainframe/jcl_pgm_parameter/
JCL course
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/jcl/jcl_job_statement.htm
Introduction to COBOL
https://www.tutorialbrain.com/mainframe/cobol_home/
Free COBOL course from CSIS
http://www.csis.ul.ie/cobol/course/
Mainframe playground on COBOL
https://mainframeplayground.neocities.org/COBOL.html
Books (search for 2nd hand versions)
Teach Yourself COBOL In 21 Days
Introduction to CICS
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/crse0303.html?Open
DB2 for z/OS: Data Sharing in a Nutshell
Introduction to Db2 z/OS (for programmers) – https://www.tutorialbrain.com/mainframe/db2_tutorial/
MQ on z/os concepts
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSFKSJ_8.0.0/com.ibm.mq.pro.doc/q003590_.htm
http://share.confex.com/data/handout/share/131/Session_23611_handout_11867_0.pdf
Introduction to VSAM
https://www.tutorialbrain.com/mainframe/vsam_tutorial/
Assembler training
IBM System z Tech Video’s
Unfortunately there is no Community mainframe yet. How cool would that be.
There is the emulator solution zD&T on which you can run z/OS legitimately (warning: quite cumbersome, slow and expensive.)
IBM Z trials
https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/resources/trial
Gives you 3 days access to a trial environment with scripted tutorials..
When you have a software development company, or if you are rich:
Remote development programme on Dallas System z
http://dtsc.dfw.ibm.com/MVSDS/’HTTPD2.ENROL.PUBLIC.SHTML(ZOSRDP)’
(Will cost you something like $550 USD per month.)
This year COBOL was delivered 60 years ago as one of the first general purpose, cross-platform programming languages.
On 8 January 1960 the ‘COBOL Executive Committee’ formally approved the design of the programming language “COBOL 60”.
One of the very early adopters of COBOL in the Netherlands, and long time member of the COBOL standard, Wim Ebbinkhuijsen, did a very nice talk at the event organized by Ordina. He went through the history of COBOL through the past 60 years. As a close observer and influencer of the programming language you get a great insight in this recent history of computing. Slides can be found here.
Some time ago I did a short summary presentation on my experience with replication solutions for Db2 on z/OS. The pictures and text are quite generic, so I thought it might be worthwhile sharing the main topics here. The picture below summarizes the options visually:
Synchronizes tables. The synchronization process on the capture side reads the Db2 transaction log, and puts the updates for which a “subscription” is defined on a queue. On the apply side, the tool retrieves the updates from the queue and applies them to the target database.
Also synchronizes tables. In this case the capture process stores the updates in an intermediate or staging table, from which the apply process takes the updates and applies them to the target tables.
Takes the updates to the tables for which a subscription is defined and produces a comma-delimited or xml message from it which is put on a queue. The consumer of the message can be any user-defined program.
CDC provides a flexible solution that can push data updates to multiple forms of target media, whether tables, messages or an ETL tool.
After my short summary, we dug a little in the requirement’s for the specific problem this team was aiming to address. They needed:
So a solution should replicate the operational database to an archive database, while data must be very current, demanding near-realtime synchronization.
We focused a it on the Queue Replication solution. The target DBMS for Queue replication can be Db2, Oracle and SQL Server (and a few more). Furthermore, in my experience this solution can support:
There are a few concerns in the Queue Replication solution:
Hope this helps with your replication needs.
The most useful ISPF EDIT macro ever. I think it was written by Paul van Goethem from Belgium, somewhere before 1993. It has quickly spread through many sites.
Point your cursor at at dataset name in a file your are editing en executing the macro will launch an EDIT session of that file.
I always put in under PF key PF4 which by default has the not very useful default value RETURN.
Note the value of the variable INVALID in the below may be corrupted. It should contain any character that is not valid as part of a dataset. The binary values it can contain are not very portable.
/****************************REXX***********************************/
/* FUNCTION: RECURSIVE EDIT OF BROWSE VIA DSNAAM AND,OR MEMBER */
/* SPECIFIED VIA CURSOR SENSITIVE EDIT MACRO */
/* FORMATS ACCEPTED: */
/* DATA.SET.NAME : EDIT/BROWSE OF THIS */
/* DATA.SET.NAME(MEMBER) : EDIT/BROWSE THIS */
/* MEMBER : EDIT/BROWSE IN SAME LIBRARY AS INDEX */
/****************************REXX***********************************/
ADDRESS ISPEXEC INVALID= ",'\<\>,:;+��▖!�%�-="
ADDRESS ISREDIT 'MACRO (FUNCTIE)'
FUNCTIE = TRANSLATE(FUNCTIE)
IF SUBSTR(FUNCTIE,1,1)='B'
THEN FUNCTIE='BROWSE'
ELSE FUNCTIE='EDIT'
LIN=0
ADDRESS ISREDIT '(LIN,COL) = CURSOR'
ADDRESS ISREDIT '(CLINE) = LINE 'LIN
/* FIND CURRENT WORD */
T=SUBSTR(CLINE,1,COL)
T =TRANSLATE(T,' ',INVALID)
Y=LASTPOS(' ',T)
IF Y=0
THEN T=CLINE
ELSE T=SUBSTR(CLINE,Y+1)
PARSE VAR T WOORD .
WOORD =TRANSLATE(WOORD,' ',INVALID)
"CONTROL ERRORS RETURN"
IF INDEX(WOORD,'(') /= 0 THEN DO /* TAKE DSN IF SPECIFIED */
PARSE VAR WOORD DSNAME '(' MEMBER ')'
FUNCTIE" DATASET('"SPACE(DSNAME)"("MEMBER")')"
FRC=RC
END
ELSE DO
IF INDEX(WOORD,'.')/=0 THEN DO
PARSE VAR WOORD DSNAME .
FUNCTIE" DATASET('"SPACE(DSNAME)"')"
END
ELSE DO
ADDRESS ISREDIT "(DSNAME) = DATASET"
WOORD = SPACE(TRANSLATE(WOORD,' ','.()'))
FUNCTIE" DATASET('"DSNAME"("WOORD")')"
END
FRC=RC
END
ADDRESS ISPEXEC "CONTROL ERRORS CANCEL"
IF FRC> 4 & SYMBOL(ZERRMSG)/= 'LIT' THEN DO
MSG= ZERRMSG':'ZERRLM
"SETMSG MSG(ZOM000A)"
END
RETURN
Again a simple solution for a common problem: how to run a Db2 query from a batch script. Here we use the utility DSNTEP2 that is provided for this purpose with the Db2 installation.
In the STEPLIB, specify your names for Db2 runtime libraries.
In the SYSTEM (xxxx) clause specify your Db2 subsystem.
The SQL in the SYSIN label can be taken from in-stream, or from a dataset as below.
//GO EXEC PGM=IKJEFT01,DYNAMNBR=20 //STEPLIB DD DSN=SYS2.SDSNEXIT,DISP=SHR // DD DSN=SYS2.SDSNLOAD,DISP=SHR //SYSTSPRT DD SYSOUT=* //SYSTSIN DD * DSN SYSTEM (xxxx) RUN PROG (DSNTEP2) //SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=* //SYSUDUMP DD SYSOUT=* //*SYSIN DD DISP=SHR,DSN=YOURDSN.DB2.SQL(YOURSQL) OR //SYSIN DD * SELECT * FROM YOURTABLE /*
//Dean
IBM has announced the new mainframe box, not unexpectedly called z15. The z15 is a huge machine and I would summarize this evolution “bigger and better” without being disrespectful.
Nevertheless, the accompanying announcement of the new release of the flagship operating system for the z15, z/OS 2.4 is massively interesting.
The most eye-catching new feature in z/OS 2.4 is z/OS Container Extensions. With this feature you can run Linux Docker containers under z/OS, next to your existing z/OS applications. Making your Containers thus part of your z/OS infrastructure has some powerful advantages.
The second important item to look at is the evolution of z/OSMF. Contrary to what IBM Marketing tells us I believe the second important item in my opinion is not Container Pricing, and not Open Data Analytics on z/OS. The development of z/OSMF is more important because it is fundamentally changing the consumability of the platform, turning the platform into the most open computing platform in the market, through the availability op REST APIs on basically any resource on the platform. And fundamentally transforming the way the platform is managed.
It is exciting to see how the mainframe is changing at the moment. The movements of the last five years are really turning the mainframe from a self-oriented platform into one of the most open and accessible technologies on the market.
The only thing left in my opinion is an affordable, public and easily accessible facility to the platform in order to boost the collaborative community around the platform.
Ok another short one: just a small JCL script with working example for the definition of a user catalog. This would accompany the example of the alias definition for a user catalog that can be found here.
//DEFCAT EXEC PGM=IDCAMS //SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=* //SYSIN DD * DEFINE UCAT (NAME(SYS1.USERCAT.PROD) VOLUME(DASD1B) - CYL(6,1) ICFCAT )
Enjoy.
Pierre G.