RE: Migrating from AS/400 to MicroFocus

I do not know who originally asked this question but for what it is worth,
the FTP process will do just fine, the real consideration is the DB product
that Micro Focus will be accessing. In the past they used XDB which was a
DB2 work alike, don't know if it still exists but if I picked up on the
original message correctly the thought was to go to native MF ISAM ? So
there are some questions that just need to be answered to point this chap in
a good direction.

If the data is in native 400 files, ISAM will be fine (yup I agree the
mappings need to be looked at), If DB2 then the obvious choice would be to
get DB2 on the PC, (Data mapping problem almost goes away)

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr Syd Nicholson [mailto:sydnic@ccs400.com]
Sent: Monday, December 23, 2002 6:00 PM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Migrating from AS/400 to MicroFocus


Brad,

A few questions for you.

Does the PC application already exist?
Do you know the relationships between the files in the PC database, and
how these relate to the corresponding files on the PC?
In a similar vein, do you know which fields in the OS/400 database map
to which fields in the PC database?

I think it very unlikely you will have a one-to-one correlation between
the data on the AS/400 and that on the PC, consequently, it very
unlikely that ftp by itself will be the answer. Somewhere along the line
you will need a conversion program. I assume that since you asked this
question, this conversion program does not exist.

IMHO you will need some systems analysis to determine how data maps from
one system to another, then you will need to write the conversion
program(s) required. Depending upon on your sphere of expertise, this
program(s) could be

1. Written on the PC to process data after it has been FTPed to the PC, or
2. Written in RPG creating data directly in the IFS in the correct
format for your new database.

If the format/requirements of the database are known, experience in
microfocus cobol is not necessary to perform the conversion.

Other things to consider:

How big is your AS/400 database, - viz. Does the PC application have any
natural limits on the size of files, record lengths, etc?
How big is your AS/400 database, - viz. Would it be quicker to type the
data back into the PC application?
How does the PC application handle multi-user access and record locking.
Will this affect how data is converted?
Does the PC database exist as a single large file (cf. MS Access) or as
several files?
Does the PC database keep track of relationships between files
(enforcing referential integrity) and could this affect the design of
your conversion program?
Does the PC database have 'control' files/records (eg. relative record
number files, indexes, etc.) that need to kept in sync with the
remainder of the database?
etc.

I know I have asked a lot of questions, but I hope you find this reply
helpful. Unfortunately, I can see no simple answer to your question
without a lot more information.

Syd Nicholson


Brad McDaniel wrote:

>Hello All -
>
>We are about to start migrating some apps off the AS/400 to the Windows
>platform, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with migrating
>data in physical files on the 400 to files on the Windows platform (ISAM?)
>that MicroFocus COBOL programs can read.  Is there an easy way?
>
>Thanks,
>


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