Run a JCL in Test environment by pulling data from PROD

byasmeen · New User Joined: 01 Mar 2010 Posts: 15 Location: chennai

Hi,

Please can you provide me with information on how to run a JCL in Test environment by directly pulling data from production environment.

Thanks in advance.

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 3:47 pm

clarify the meaning of the word pulling

the safest approach is to clone the data from production and access the cloned data

I have seen a few cases where tests were run by using production data in READ ONLY fashion but never directly by the testing team

it is a murky situation, from any point of view,
information security ( wrong people accessing sensitive data )
data integrity ( what if )
data sharing
auditing

byasmeen · New User Joined: 01 Mar 2010 Posts: 15 Location: chennai

I need to access data present in the production environment using a JCL which will run in Dev set up. Is this possible?

Thanks.

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 4:01 pm

if You did not understand my previous reply meditate about a career shift

the question anyway belongs to the category

is it possible to shoot <Myself/Yourself> ?
unfortunately/fortunately in both cases ( accessing production data/ shooting ) the answer is
YES

why not ask Your support for the how ?
do not dare to ask us! You will be banned instantly

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 4:02 pm

as usual, piss-poor problem definition.

in a professional IT environement,
production data is unloaded
and then this data is (maybe with a little anonymising) loaded into developement tables, files.

then the jobs are constructed to run the tests.
normally this is JCL that uses symbolics to allow for mult-environments.
all of our production JCL can be used in the dev, test, qa environment with only changes of symbolics. The procs do not have to be changed.

is the above the scenario that you wish?

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 4:03 pm

Bill Woodger · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 4:11 pm

As enrico has said, yes you can. For hecks sake don't do it on your own.

As dbz has outlined, that is how it is done. To do this you will have to involve your "production control" department - the technical people with responsibility for the production data. If your requirement is valid, they are the people who will satisfy it, along dbz's lines.

If they say no, but your requirement has no choice but to use the data, you either go "up the line" through your bosses until you either get it done or a flat no, or you put your requirement through to production in the normal way when you will have no problem accessing the production data.

If you try another approach, you'll likely loose your job. Everything possible you could think of to get at the production data outside of proper channels will leave a trail that leads right to you. Don't for a microsecond consider it.

PeterHolland · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 4:19 pm

All the answers are wrong. The TS should ask his company to put all
data on shared dasd, so the TS can test till the company goes down the drain. We lose another competitor and hopefully a lot of so called IT engineers/specialists and whatever they call themselves.

byasmeen · New User Joined: 01 Mar 2010 Posts: 15 Location: chennai

I am aware of the scenario mentioned by dbzTHEdinosauer. But it is not what i am looking for.
Usually when we run a job we will access the data from the same environment as that of job. But i want to run a job in TEST setup by directly accessing data from another environment.
I am extremely sorry if my point is not clear according to you. But this is the requirement i got which i am analyzing if it can be done.

Thanks.

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 4:42 pm

topic locked to prevent further stupidity !