Re: ** BPCS System/36 4.4B to AS400 6.1Mixed Mode **

MacWheel99@aol.com = Al Macintyre replies to Forwiw@aol.com

> Subj:   ** BPCS System/36 4.4B to AS400 6.1Mixed Mode **

>  Is this possible?  Or am I dreaming?

Yes - it is possible & 
yes - you may be dreaming

>  Is there a way to convert System/36 flat files to the AS400?

Yes - we did it last year, but we gave up on using SSA conversion utilities.

We were on BPCS/36 version 4.4.7 modified - we are now on BPCS 405 CD --- 
SSA's conversion utilities in theory took the files all the way from S/36 4.4 
B to whatever version of BPCS 400 you wanted, but not in one leap.

4.4 B to AS/400 to 2.0 to 2.0.9 to whatever, which in our case was 4.0.05, 
then CD had to be applied & it was full of bugs at every stage, and we were 
also combining 4 data bases on S/36 to 1 environment on BPCS 405 CD & SSA had 
no conversion for that scenario.

>  We were sent conversion tapes from SSA but they start at BPCS
>  version 2.0.9 on the AS400.  

You do not have the entire SSA collection of conversion support, but the 
documentation is not exactly well organized - many of the steps require you 
to do some stuff, transcribing long strings of CL commands & God help you if 
you make a typo.

> We were going to use these conversion
>  tapes, but now I was told that it isn't possible.

You might also make sure you have the latest version of SSA's conversion 
software - they periodically come out with new releases & fixes.
  
>  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Depending on your precise scenario, you may be able to do what we were not 
able to  do.  We looked at our version of BPCS vs. 4.4B & concluded the file 
layout was consistent so we could go from 4.4.7 no sweat.   What 4.4 A B 
added was in essence software functionality, not changes in file layouts.

We were on Machine/36 & had to figure out how to get files from S/36 
environment to OS/400 reality - I did so via a save to tape then a restore/36 
to OS/400 - ie. within OS/400 commands there is a restore in S/36 format to a 
library on OS/400.  So now you have the S/36 flat files as objects 
recognizable to OS/400 except they are not externally defined.

Thanks to GaryWWest@aol.com
I did not remember the exact command

> Use 'RSTS36F' to restore the files to as/400 dasd.

There's other RSTS36 stuff - we also restored S/36 software to AS/400 dasd, 
related to some of our modifications & NCS PRO conversion aids

> Then convert the files via internally described file in RPG programs.

Dean wrote

>  SSA's conversion programs may not work, but S/36 files can be easily 
defined 
> 
>  to the AS/400 via IDDU.  If your files are defined using IDDU and you 
> perform an IDDULINK, even DSPFFD will work properly against them...

Well I wish I knew that at the time - we had a few files defined with IDDU, 
whose links would not restore to AS/400 - of course we were on Machine/36 
within Advanced/36 & a lot of advice only applies to S/36 Environment on 
other AS/400 boxes

We used NCS PRO to analyse BPCS/36 source code to derive the external file 
layouts for the S/36 flat files.  A real nice aspect of NCS PRO is that it 
also compiles the programs to copy S/36 flat file contents into externally 
defined OS/400 objects.  We modified the generated NCS PRO code to get rid of 
records coded for deletion, which BPCS/36 was not real good at doing, and 
also made 4 members for each file, so that IIM for example had 1 member for 
each of our BPCS/36 data bases.

Mindaugas Bielskus
Data Summary, Inc.

gave contact info on an NCS PRO competitor 
in fact there are a bunch of companies that perform that kind of service
but the name of the game is getting the job done expediciously

In theory, if you get 100% of SSA conversion tools, like we did, and you do 
not have any funny business like we had to have to combine, then in theory 
SSA conversion tools should do the whole job, but we ran out of time writing 
work-arounds for all the SSA bugs in their conversion tools --- they may have 
improved it since the version we saw

Are you using consultants to help you with this?

We went with NCS PRO & File Track thanks to the reccommendation of a business 
consultant from Crowe Chizek who told us what our choices were for combining 
facilities into one environment from several S/36 data bases - several other 
Crowe Clients had done the same thing, including one from BPCS 4.3

Then we used File Track from Outlook Computing
http://www.outlookcomputing.com

to put humpty dumpty together.

Some files, like item master & customer master needed to be consolidated into 
only one record per control, with a grand total combined.  Others that were 
facility bound needed other conversions.  We got great education & support 
from Outlook.

We were driven by a management imperative to do fiscal end-month on S/36 on a 
Fri nite & be live on the same data on OS/400 the next Monday morning.  We 
met that deadline with 1/2 a day to spare & no one had to go more than about 
10 hours without sleep, but there were about a dozen people choreographed 
over the weekend performing different tasks, that had been really thoroughly 
tested.

Our biggest hassle was that we were S/36 professionals in need of OS/400 
education.

Al Macintyre
Central Industries, Mfg of Wiring Harnesses
http://www.cen-elec.com
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