Migrating Between Versions of CICS TS, DB2, IMS, or Operating System?

Then Read On….

By

Don Fowler, MCE, Inc., May 2007

December 8, 2004 - Announcing the availability of the IMS V9 MAP. 
March 2005 - CICS TS 3.1 MAP Is Available.
May 2005 - Websphere MQ MAP will be available in July 2005.
December 2006 - MSK is replaced and superceded by MAP 

MAP Supercedes MSK

As of January 1, 2007, the venerable time-tested Migration Support Kit (MSK) is replaced by Migration Assistance Pac (MAP). The MAP provides a richer set of ISV products that can be incorporated in the migration plan and provides for additional fee migration-related services that can be optionally included with the MAP delivery. The descriptions, below from our earlier MSK offerings, still define the basic usage of a MAP (a.k.a., MSK).  

Migrations In General

With IBM’s latest product announcements, many mainframe professionals are faced with another round of migrations. From the newly available DB2 Version 8 with its awesome enhancements to CICS TS 3.1 and its Service Oriented Architecture enhancements, users are facing accelerated migration pressures. 

If the user is not an existing DB2 Version 7 enterprise, then the migration to DB2 Version 8 will require an initial migration to DB2 Version 7. Thus these users face two version migrations to worry over and plan.

IMS Version 9 is now available and will require careful planning for successful installation and migration. 

With OS 390 2.10 quickly exiting supported status, users are now migrating to z/OS Version 1.  Many of the other software products, such as CICS TS V3.1, require a pre-requisite of z/OS 1.4 or later.  

|Websphere MQ for z/OS Version 6 has just been released and most V5.2 and V5.3 shops should be looking to migrate to the new version asap.

Any way you cut it, a migration of one or more major components of your mainframe environment are looming over the enterprise.     

Most mainframe professionals don’t have the necessary time to read all of the technical “how to” materials required to stay current and properly plan these migrations.  This is especially true in enterprises that have a very large and diverse inventory of various vendors’ software products to provide business solutions and technology management.

In some cases, mainframe skills are eroded, thus making it difficult to properly plan and execute a product migration.    

Migration Assistance Pac

Your IBM Business Partner sponsoring this newsletter is offering a no charge Migration Assistance Pac to you when you are migrating to a new version of DB2, CICS TS, IMS, or z/OS.  

Migration Assistance Pacs are a significant step as a solution for the above issues.  A MAP provides not only a clear, detailed set of migration task lists for both IBM and most major 3^rd party software vendors, but it also provides automated acquisition of relevant vendor documentation for each task.    

Generic MAP

The standard generic MAP for any of the software products provides all of the relevant tasks for the IBM product and 3^rd party vendor products you select (if any). It has each task assigned to a one of four dummy individuals. The task hours are a national average of how long it takes technical professionals of different skills levels to perform the task.

If one is not specified in the MAP order form, the project start is set to the beginning of the week following the shipped MAP date. 

|Delivery of the MAP will be either a HTML, EXCEL, or Microsoft Project 98 file format (or all three), depending on which option is selected on the MAP order form. 

The user is granted eight (8) hours of remote (phone and/or email) support as part of the shipment.

The shipment is made as file attachments to the receiver’s email address. This is the email address specified on the MAP order form. You will receive an initial email stating that your requested MAP is being shipped in a subsequent email as an attachment. If you do not receive the second email, notify the sender of the first email and other arrangements will be made for shipping. This multiple email scheme is used because some email servers will not accept large attachments or will not accept attachments at all.  This shipping technique is used for both the generic and the custom version of the MAP.      

Custom MAP

You may also identify up to four technical professionals and the MAP will be further customized through assigning the migrations tasks to these individuals. If you indicate the skill level of each of the identified technical professionals, the assigned tasks’ hours will be adjusted to reflect the skill level.

You may further select from a wide inventory of 3^rd party products that include most of the Computer Associates products, Compuware products, and many other vendors’ products. The unique and relevant 3^rd party selection inventory is presented as part of the MAP order form for the IBM product you are installing. 

Other customization features you can request are:

1.      Delivery of the MAP  as either a HTML, EXCEL, or Microsoft Project 98 file format (or all 3), 

2.      Set a project start date and cascade the task lists off of that date, and

3.      Add unique 3^rd party products not in the current selection inventory.          

Customized MAP users receive 8 hours of remote support. Shipment is the same as the generic MAP described above. 

MAP Detailed Description

The MAP task list begins with the tasks required for ordering of the product Server Pac from IBM.  So you will want to order the MAP approximately two weeks before you plan to order the IBM software. This will give you time to utilize the MAP as an aid in developing the Server Pac order.

In order to appreciate the depth of the MAP task list and the automation of acquiring relevant vendor documentation about a specific task, the remainder of this section will provide live examples of a MAP and its usage and capabilities. 

        Figure 1 – MAP Main Page (CICS TS 3.1 MAP Example)

Using Figure 1, Item A denotes the start of the MAP task list. It contains the various licensing information required to properly provide a copy to a specific enterprise for a specific project.

Item D shows the person assigned to the task as a Gantt chart format. Since this is Microsoft PROJECT this area can be in GANTT, PERT, or other chart types by simple selection.

Item B shows the World Wide Web link icon. By clicking this icon for this task, you will be automatically taken to the required web page to read the why and how of the task.

This web page could be an IBM manual, IBM Red Book, SHARE presentation, technical briefing paper, or any other document deemed appropriate for defining and executing the associated MAP task.

We will demonstrate this function in a later graphic.

Item C points to a Project notes field. When there is more than one document required to support the associated MAP task, the note field will contain each URL required for reaching each web page.

Note that Items B and C will only function if the PC where the MAP is executed has INTERNET access.  Also note that since web addresses change all of the time, the longer the MAP sits on the shelf before use, the more likely that some number of this web page links will either be redirected or fail to find a valid web page. Therefore, only order and obtain the MAP when you are ready to order the product and begin the migration.

              Figure 2 – Example of MAP Web Link

Using Figure 2, we will show the effect of clicking on a Web Link (item A) for the MAP task “Authorize CPAC CPP LOADLIB in Production PROGxx (if necessary)”.  When this URL is pointed to and clicked, you will be taken to the associated manual, chapter, and page required for the task (see Figure 3).  In this case you are taken to Chapter 65 of the IBM Initialization and Tuning manual at the IBM Boulder library server.

  Figure 3 – Resulting Web Page from Web Link

To return to the MAP task list after reading or possibly printing the displayed web page of reference material, simply click on the browser back button.         

Figure 4 demonstrates what the multiple web reference notes field will look like. By selecting one of the web URL addresses in the task note, the user will be taken to that documentation.  The user clicks the notes icon in the relevant MAP task and is presented the Project notes item for that task. In this case, we see that there are two SHARE presentations noted. By simply clicking the URL in the note for the SHARE paper you wish to view, you will be presented that document. This might be a PDF file, and HTML file, or some other browser display friendly document.    

To return to the MAP task list after reading or printing the presented material, simply click the browser back button.