>Thanks for the possibilities. Likely I should have also added the
>phrases "cheap" and "only takes minutes to install with no programmer
>involvment", "plug and play", "simple enough for an MCSE to understand"
><nasty, there John>
Not too nasty, actually. Those are typical requirements (cheap, near zero
time, etc.) Not always possible, but almost always desired.
I would say that the main appeal of the event publishing technique is the
quick/no programming/plug-and-play characteristics. Cheap should be pretty
quickly determinable, at least in price terms. (Total cost is another
question and, as said so many times, can diverge wildly from price.) There
will be more CPU instructions -- somehow you have to get the data from VSAM
into Oracle -- so I think that's unavoidable until IBM releases the zRCP (z
Reverse Charging Processor) which spits out one gold coin for each
1,000,000 instructions. (Yes, IBM engineers are working on that. :-))
Seriously, if you're sensible about setting event trigger rules then it's
fine. (And CPU instructions aren't free on any platform. Folks just can't
measure them very well without SMF. :-))
So (architect hat on) I'd look at that technique as one of the options to
consider.
I can think of yet another way: transparency. That is, for the VSAM files
that have content that must be replicated to Oracle, you migrate those
specific files to DB2 (using VSAM Transparency for example) then use any of
the replication solutions (IBM's II Q Rep as an example, and there are
others, even at IBM) to Oracle. That path is probably worth exploring if
you're a DB2 shop (or want to be) and you have plans to store data in DB2
anyway. Transparency means your applications aren't changed -- there's
that cheap/quick/no programmer part again. The applications still think
they're talking VSAM. A slight variation ("semi-transparency") is that you
go ahead and EXEC SQL code the most I/O intense sections (for performance
reasons) and leave everything else alone -- a 90/10 type of approach.
If you only have to kick out a limited amount of data and could make
minimal code changes to get the job done, that's another way. Oracle
Access Manager for CICS provides an EXEC SQL interface to allow CICS
programs to write directly to Oracle Database, to pick an example. (OAM4C
is an Oracle product. Might be another Oracle z/OS network piece required
to access an offboard Oracle server, and maybe also Oracle's "Pro*"
precompiler, but that's the idea.) Not as simple/quick/no programmer for
the z/OS programmer, however. And it's not very clean in the sense that
you'll have to be in the perpetual coding business when (usually when) the
business users decide they need something else kicked out for analysis next
month.
Yet another way, if the users want to run reporting tools directly against
VSAM data, is to get an ODBC/JDBC interface to VSAM. All the popular
reporting tools can access data via ODBC or JDBC, even including simple
tools like Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel. (Others: Crystal Reports,
Cognos, Business Objects, IBI, etc., etc.) In the IBM catalog WebSphere
IICF (Information Integrator Classic Federation) can do that, to pick an
example. Another approach in the quick/no programming/plug-and-play zone,
I would think. The workload impact will depend on the number of reports,
frequency of reports, ad hoc nature of the reports, etc. That could get
very interesting very quickly if those reporting numbers are large.
Lots and lots of ways, each with pros/cons which will be situationally
dependent.
John, I think you're in Texas, so if you want to bounce ideas off a z
architect type then I'd suggest Ken Wilson in Austin. Holler if you don't
know him and need contact info, although the 800-IBM-4-YOU number should
work with name and city.
- - - - -
Timothy Sipples
IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect
Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z
Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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