Mainframe Software Distribution

Brian Tedesco · New User Joined: 01 Dec 2009 Posts: 5 Location: USA

Mainframe Software Distribution problem:

I am looking for a Mainframe Software Distribution solution to the below scenario.

I create Mainframe software which is distributed compiled to protect software logic.
All of the software is physically shipped on a 3480 tape or compressed and posted to a host site where customers can turn around and either order a 3480 tape or download the software in its compressed format and uncompress it using either ADRDSSU or PKZIP.

The issues I am running into is many companies are migrating away from tape completely and not everyone is licensed for PKZIP or ADRDSSU.

Many of the other Mainframe software companies I am familiar with distribute their software un-compiled which enables them to FTP and WINZIP their code in a simple process with no corruption issues.

I am aware of the TERSE / XMIT command to protect the loadlibs but it is not a feasible solution to upload each of our files from an unzipped PC. Some of our software has large databases associated with it.

One solution I have been looking into is to have the software downloadable from an FTP server. Either a UNIX or small Mainframe LPAR would accomplish this. Before I continue down this path which will be an uphill battle with all of the security issues I will face does anyone have any other ideas on this?

Thanks!

Brian.

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:01 pm

Brian Tedesco · New User Joined: 01 Dec 2009 Posts: 5 Location: USA

enrico-sorichetti-

I really don't like the arrogant tone of your responses.
Just a little background, I have well over 20 years on the mainframe platform from disaster recovery and technical support to systems and networking.

Now let’s look closer at your answers...

dick scherrer · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:07 am

Hello and welcome to the forum,

Brian Tedesco · New User Joined: 01 Dec 2009 Posts: 5 Location: USA

LOL...
Sorry, I was a little ticked at that last response and maybe vented a little openly on the forum....

The PKZIP overall was the best solution because you could select all of the software and database files in one JCL run and package it into a single .zip file on the mainframe. That could then be FTPed to the PC and posted or emailed depending on the size / requirements.

The problem is not everyone runs it and is costs are based on your processor MIPS I believe.

I'll look into SMP and see if that is an option.

Thanks.

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:28 am

You might be laughing out loud... I DO NOT

I was offended by the arrogant and condescending tone of Your reply

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:09 am

Brian,

if you had taken five minutes and read any of the threads in this forum,
you would have seen that except for some of the moderators
(ok guys,sorry, all of the moderators)
few have any experience for which you require expertise.

You need to be hitting forums that are basically systems programmers/analysts and not application forums.

and, everytime someone has to tell me of all the experience he has,
I know that it is very limited, regardless of the number of years he managed to hold onto a job.

Customer service seems to be a short point in your resume. If you had a brain, Brian, you would be canvassing your customers and asking them what method they want to use to take delivery.
I don't know of any software house that has delivered source since the 80's.

every thing-a-ma-bob-generating company has some type of affiliation.
these groups support one-another.

I imagine you got lucky, somebody went out of business
(that previously provided this software)
and you were one of the coders who got together with whoever had the bucks to buy the rights to the software. Now you are trying to make your retirement fund grow, and don't know how to do it. Probably was tasked by someone in charge to find the answer to this question. you should stick to what you know - whatever that is, and software distribution is not it

Brian Tedesco · New User Joined: 01 Dec 2009 Posts: 5 Location: USA

Thanks for the info (I think)...

I figured since I am distributing an application I'd give this site a shot.

BTW - Your way off the mark on the out of business idea (I wish that was the case). I work for good old corporate America and have many more years to go before retirement if it is an option if at all...

Just trying to get a new direction on pushing out our software out to the clients.

dick scherrer · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 4:30 am

Hello,

Don't know how easily this might be available, but it might be worth a bit of time to learn how the competition does this.

You want to at least be as easy-to-use as they are. . .

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 4:32 am

That's the greatest drawbacks when one attempts to assume;
makes an ass out of u & me

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:16 am

Hi Brian,
my assumption was of an all blue ( IBM ) environment...
but in a subsequent post You tallked about UNISYS

I can talk for the IBM side
usually for this environment the options usually are ...

SMP packaging ( needs quite a bit of experience on FMID building for the base product, and SYSMOD building the maintenance
( maybe some coordination with IBM in order to get a proper product FMID )
or
iebcopy for the libraries
plus/and
<unloaded format for the databases>

for some products the database content is packaged inside some distribution library with the indication of what utility to use

or some companies gave the option of adrdssu/FDR dump restore format
that was my comments about meeting the customers expectations

still all of this must be wrapped in a <container> suitable for FTP transfer

to make things simpler on the receiver' s side I am still conviced that the best wrapper would be the XMIT format ( ease of uploading to the client mainframe)

on Your side a dfdss/fdr dump
dump include dataset(<yourappl-prefix>.**
to get a big sequential dataset
after that an XMIT <thedumpds> outdataset(<xmitds>
and on the receiving side the other way around

the dfdss dump would take care of the different organizations
anyway using the XMIT approach will preserve a LOAD library format
and a binary ftp will preserve all You need to preserve

a sligltly different approach ( which I prefer by the way ) would be

xmit every single dataset to a sequential dataset ( recfm fb 80/***)
( sources, load,unloaded databases)

store each xmitted image in a member of a pds , at the end
again an XMIT step to build a single dataset for the ftp thing

You might want to zip the final dataset

for example Lionel B, Dyck xmitip is packaged that way
download of the xmitip.zip
unzip to get an xmitip.xmi
upload to the MF
receive indataset ....
inside the xmitip distribution pds You' d find the other PDS to complete the installation

Brian Tedesco · New User Joined: 01 Dec 2009 Posts: 5 Location: USA

Yes, unfortunately some of our customers are not running true IBM hardware... I know UNISYS hardware is out there but I'm not sure if AHMDAL? is still around.

Your solution at the bottom is very close to one of the ways I distribute now.
I build my distribution files and then compress them into one single ADRDSSU backup file which XMIT is run against and the output is transferred to the PC. That file is posted to a download site and customers simply download the file, XFR to the mainframe, receive the XMIT and uncompress the ADRDSSU file and they are in business.

Since ADRDSSU is not a base O/S function (UNISYS Hardware I have found as an example) I'll look at removing the ADRDSSU option. I'll rewrite the build JCL to XMIT each dataset / PDS and then try to load them all into one PDS as you mentioned. How would you go about loading all of the XMITed datasets into one PDS?

Thanks!

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 6:52 pm