> -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Skip Robinson > Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 11:06 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Going unsupported - time to fold? > > When you abandon ship, you lose access to everything you had > on the ship > except for what you haul into the life boat. That requires exquisite > planning and a whale of a life boat. Real life story: > > I once worked for a company that had previously been a big > user of IMS. By > the time I arrived, IMS was long gone after being replaced by > other data > base software. One day the finance folks called up and asked > whether we > could resurrect some old IMS files that would document an > opportunity to > save the company a boatload in some kind of tax overpayments. > The number > was worth some research. We put our heads together and decided that > > -- we still had valid backup tapes of the files in question > -- we had no chance in h*ll of making any sense of the data > without an IMS > to unscramble it > > Besides not being licensed for IMS, we saw no prospect of > reanimating a > version that could process the data in an intelligible way. > We had to give > up. > > A more compelling reason to retain not just restorability but > usability of > old data is the onerous demand of legal and financial > requirements inherent > in running any modern enterprise. Maybe municipal government > lives beyond > such mundane mandates, but I would be shocked if any 'business' entity > could sail along with historical immunity. After as little as > five years, > how simple would it be to put Humpty Dumpty back together again? > > . > . > JO.Skip Robinson
Which is why part of the conversion needs to be to convert all data (include backup'ed up data on tape) into some sort of "transportable" format. If it were me (and it ain't, praise God!), I'd create an XML schema and unload all the data into XML. But that would require a schema for every different file (or database) structure. This should then be "transportable" in that somebody could then write code to parse the XML data and place it into some other format (maybe another database). But never would I say "well, I have that on a backup tape". What non-z/OS system could restore a VSAM dataset which was backed up using DFDSS, FDR, or (our favorite) Faver? Right now we are looking at converting our report database from a z/OS system to one that runs on Windows or maybe Linux. We have a plan which includes converting hundreds of thousands of long term reports which are currently on tape in an offsite vault to this. We couldn't just say "well, the likelihood of anybody wanting that report is so small that we'll just ignore it until somebody asks." We are well aware of the need to get various report for legal purposes. A "plus" of getting sued recently, I guess. -- John McKown Senior Systems Programmer HealthMarkets Keeping the Promise of Affordable Coverage Administrative Services Group Information Technology The information contained in this e-mail message may be privileged and/or confidential. It is for intended addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, reproduction, distribution or other use of this communication is strictly prohibited and could, in certain circumstances, be a criminal offense. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply and delete this message without copying or disclosing it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
