Jason,
See embedded notes. My suggestion is that you should engage a consultant
who is knowledgeable in IMS and relational data bases to accomplish
this. It is non-trivial and full of pitfalls.
Tom Harper
Phoenix Software International
On 5/16/2024 7:42 PM, Jason Cai wrote:
Dear all,
We are currently undertaking a project to convert some 15-year-old IMS
database, for which we have some full image copy on tape, to a MySQL database
on a Linux platform.
To ensure the success of this migration, we would greatly appreciate your
expertise and guidance on the following matters:
Is it feasible to recover the IMS full image copy without an IMS DB system, or
is the presence of an IMS DB system an absolute necessity for this migration
process?
Yes, it is possible, but not likely to succeed unless you have detailed
IMS knowledge. Image copies may be made many different ways with many
different utilities, and their format is different for different types
of IMS data bases. If the image copy you have was made with a BMC
product, for example, having an IMS DB system won't help you unless you
have the BMC product to restore the data base if the BMC image copy was
commpressed.
Once we have successfully restored the IMS database files to disk, we are
considering two potential approaches:
a) Utilizing the IMS unload utility to convert the database files into a PS
format, followed by developing a program to read the PS file and import the
data into MySQL.
It is true that the IMS unload utility will unload to a PS format, but
it is not a simple format to process. Also, if it is a DEDB data base,
the IMS unload utility does not supprot that, and the same is true of a
SHISAM data base.
Also, if the data base contains compressed segments, you will need the
compress/expand routines successfully unload it.
Does this data base contain logical relationships? If it does,
converting it to MySQL requires expert knowledge and experience.
b) Directly reading the IMS database files and writing the data into DB2, and
then subsequently converting the data from DB2 to MySQL.
To do this you will of course need an IMS DB system plus any compress /
expand products, and possible Partitioned Data Base Facility (PDF) from
BMC if the data base was using that.
Are there any specific constraints or limitations that we should be aware of,
such as the mandatory requirement of an IMS DB system for this migration?
Are there any relevant tools or utilities available that could assist us in
this process and help streamline the migration?
We would be immensely grateful if you could provide your insights on which
of the two approaches mentioned above would be more feasible, given our current
situation. Additionally, if there are any alternative methods or strategies
that you believe might be suitable for our specific case, we would greatly
appreciate your suggestions.
Your expertise and knowledge in this area are highly valued, and any advice or
recommendations you can offer to help us navigate this complex migration
process effectively would be sincerely appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. We eagerly await your
response and look forward to benefiting from your guidance.
Best regards,
Jason Cai
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