On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 11:29:47PM -0400, Alan Altmark wrote: > > - The CMS VSAM feature of VSE/VSAM is no longer available. If you don't > have it, you can't get it. > - Someone who already has it cannot give it to you. > - If you already have it, you can keep using it as long as you keep paying > the monthly license charge. > - It isn't licensed for use on IFLs. > - If it has become incompatible with current z/VSE VSAM support, all you > will receive from us are notes of sympathy and regret. > - OTOH, we haven't consciously done anything to break it. If *z/VM* > changes something that breaks *it*, we would likely undo whatever broke it > if that doesn't in turn break something else. (i.e. the reason for the > change in the first place.) > > I can't believe that no one remembers the SPE from around 1985 called the > "Alternate VSAM Emulator" that enables a program to intercept the VSAM > open/close/tclose calls. That means the program provides the addresses of > the read & write entry points as well since the program fills in the ACB. > See > http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r3/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v53.dmsa5/hcsd2b00628.htm. > > It was originally exploited by DB2 (SQL/DS) on VM, allowing it to emulate > VSAM. > > I can envision that the VSAM calls and data could be exported via a > custom-built "connector" to z/VSE or z/OS. Or Linux. There are those who > might be willing to pay someone to provide a solution that would leave > their programs intact but sever the connection to CMS/VSAM. I wonder: > Perhaps the emulator could simply use the BPX1xxxx POSIX routines to mount > remote NFS server and read/write data that way.
With all due respect, Sir Alan, and with no intention of shooting the messenger, this does not appear to be a solution for CMS VSAM-dependent products that we currently use. This policy has the potential to complicate, if not completely derail, a proposed upgrade to a 2098-F01 of the shop I am supporting that has been VM and VSE for decades. And here I've been bragging on IBM to the Microsofties. I know-- it's just business. What's one entry-level z10? Or two? -- May the LORD God bless you exceedingly abundantly! Dave Craig - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "'So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You'd better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can't rearrange the universe.'" --from _Nightfall_ by Asimov/Silverberg
