Reply for a new SYSPROG.
I was introduced to z/OS in a similar manner not too long ago. There a
ton of free "REDBOOKS" available from IBM websites, as well as most of
the Manuals in pdf format. This will add up to serious amounts of
information.
If you have tcp/IP and Unix System Services setup, then as far as
something vaguely familiar, you can start looking there. IBM also puts
most of this information on CDs, and sends a copy with z/OS or the
various products, DB2, RACF etc.
I bought a number of books, and most were good. It was noted to me at
the same time that most or all of the information in third party books
is also found somewhere in the multitudes of free IBM Redbooks and PDF
manuals.
If your shop is at all like mine, you are going to want or need to look
at JCL and TSO right now, possible REXX. That would be very roughly the
equivalent your "shell".
The "ABC Sysprog REDBOOKS" recommended were also recommended to me.
There at least nine of them at this point, and any subject touched upon
will lead to other freely available pdf manuals etc. IBM has done better
at making documentation available than anyone, bar none.
Some books I've purchased are old and partly outdated, but I also got
good prices at Amazon, bn.com, or ebay because of that, and could
reference what had since changed.
For starters, I bought:
'MVS Systems Programming' by Dave Elder-Vaas
-(some of which is available free on line)
http://www.mvsbook.fsnet.co.uk/
'Expert MVS/ESA JCL' (J.Ranade Series) by Mani Carathanassis
- see the pdf manuals for 'MVS JCL Reference'
'MVS TSO Part 1 & 2' by Doug Lowe
- there are TSO Manuals available.
REXX is a scripting language used in z/OS and TSO, as well as other
areas.
- the REXX manuals are free in pdf.
If you have some assembly interfaces you will want to look up some MVS /
z/OS assembly books. A great one, and the most expensive probably, is
'Advanced Assembler Language and MVS Interfaces' by Cannetello. You can
sasve that and get the basics from any MVS or z/OS assembler book. I've
assembled examples from 30 year old MVS assembly books that worked
without changes. FREE HLASM manuals are available, also in pdf.
Probably you should save this last part for future reference, as it
might be a bit much at the outset. But if your cup is not yet running
over, there is a freeware version of MVS available for PCs that runs on
Linux or Cygwin. I've put it on Cygwin, on top of Windows XP (sorry to
say that), on a laptop. Google 'MVS38j' or start here:
http://www.bsp-gmbh.com/hercules/turnkey_utils.html
Hope that helps some.
Kevin
================================================================
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 09:13:43 -0400
From: Aaron Peterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Migrating me from linux/bsd to zOS
My career so far has looked mostly like so:
Long John Silver's cook
Mexican Restaurant dish washer
Doctor's office secretary
Helpdesk / Desktop suport lackey
Network Security Officer (now that was a big jump wasn't it?)
Network Engineer / Network Security Officer
Random off the shelf windows software support dude
Somewhere between Helpdesk and Network Security officer I started
spending all my spare time learning linux/freebsd and most of the other
best of breed open source stuff that is made for *nix. I even did my
RHCE cert. Strangely enough, the move from Network Eng / Network Sec
Officer to windows software support dude was a sizeable pay increase
working within the same company. Anyway, I absolutely hate being a
windows software slave, so I am about to change jobs again which is why
I'm here and is the reason for this post.
I am being moved to Mainframe support. The current mainframe folks are
all either past retirement age already, almost at retirement age or
have serious health problems. And even though nobody ever hears much
about our mainframe systems, they do more work than all our other
systems combined. Management considers me a relatively bright guy,
which I certainly don't assume to be. But I am young and healthy :-)
All aboard, next stop zOS.
So here are some questions I have for you fine folks:
Is zOS anything like any other OS I might have used?
What might be some good orientation reading for me?
I'm pretty sure I will be asked to provide some level of support for
come COBOL apps we have, as well as some DB2 databases. I am
reasonably competent with Perl, and I have looked over some C, although
I probably couldn't sit down and write even a small program from
scratch with it. I am also reasonably competent with standard SQL.
These skills transfer somewhat to COBOL and DB2?
Can someone paint me a picture in broad strokes of the major
differences in hardware architecture between mainframes, x86, sparc,
and power?
Thank you in advance for any information you see fit to offer.
Aaron Peterson
Versailles, KY
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