Ashish Massey NIIT Technologies White Paper

Transcription

1 Linux Migration Ashish Massey NIIT Technologies White Paper

2 CONTENTS Introduction 3 Mainframe Technology 3 Challenges Associated with Mainframe Technology 3 Linux Migration 3 Advantages of Linux Technology 4 Migration Challenges 4 Conclusion 5

3 Introduction Insurance industry is undergoing a phenomenal transformation. The continuous sluggishness of top line growth is steering the industry towards newer business models and requisite technologies to support them. Time-to-market, though a perpetual need, has today become a real imperative for businesses to break through this stagnation. Bringing the consumer closer to the business, providing facilities to easily access information, transact, and ensuring continual commitment from distributors are some of the key growth factors that drive this industry. To support this business change, the underlying IT landscape is also undergoing a rapid transformation. In today s world, technology is advancing at a very high pace, new technologies are providing improved business logic and increased productivity. Migrating to new technology is very necessary for an organization. This white paper aims at helping organizations understand the life cycle and challenges associated with the migration of a legacy mainframe application to a more cost effective yet stable environment like Linux. Mainframe Technology Today, mainframe computers play a central role in the daily operations of most of the world's largest corporations. While other forms of computing are used extensively in business in various capacities, mainframe occupies a coveted place in today's e-business environment. In banking, finance, health care, insurance, government, and a multitude of other public and private enterprises. Various languages associated with the mainframe technology are Assembler, COBOL, PL/I, REXX, JCL, DB2, Eazytrive, and CICS. Businesses today rely on the mainframe to: Perform large-scale transaction processing (thousands of transactions per second) Support thousands of users and application programs concurrently accessing numerous resources Manage terabytes of information in databases Handle large-bandwidth communication. Because of these capabilities, the mainframe is often used by IT organizations to host the most important, mission-critical applications. These applications typically include customer order processing, financial transactions, production and inventory control, payroll, as well as many other types of work. Challenges Associated with Mainframe Technology Below are the challenges associated with mainframe technology: High cost of system hardware Since millions of transaction process in a business day the operating and maintenance cost which includes both CPU and space (DASD/Tape) is high Organizations face an ever increasing Staffing cost as very few people are left with expertise in old technologies. It is because of the high infrastructure/operational cost and with introduction of new technologies many of the big organizations have taken a strategic direction of migrating their business applications to a less expensive but competitive platform, hence saving millions of dollar from infrastructure maintenance and utilizing the same in new business opportunities. Linux Migration The successful migration of applications across platforms cannot be accomplished without extensive pre-planning and analysis. This white paper addresses the steps require to migrate established statistical applications and their associated data from Mainframe to LINUX. 3

4 Steps included in this migration life cycle are: Organization senior management should believe in this migration Linux Server setup.proof of Concept testing Determining the cost benefit analysis. Migration Framework Application programs and data Migration.Testing Strategy. The proof of concepts performed: Data Migration Replacing of COBOL/DB2 connectivity to Sybase/Micro focus COBOL Performance Testing (CPU Saves) Stress Testing (Processing huge transactions). As part of testing strategy parallel testing was performed between mainframe and Linux environment in all the below mentioned phases: Unit Testing Integration/Acceptance Testing Production Parallel Testing. The approach used as part of management during this migration project was agile methodology where each phase went through iterative and incremental development. It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development and delivery, an iterative approach and encourages rapid and flexible response to change. Migration Steps: Mainframe application COBOL programs were converted to micro Focus COBOL and migrated to Linux platform JCL s were converted Linux shell scripts. EZT s, assembler codes were converted to COBOL SORT was converted to micro Focus SORT utilities Various mainframe utilities such as IDCAMS, IEBGENER were converted to Linux compatible tools and commands DB2 modules were updated to establish the Sybase connection Mainframe database (VSAM) files were migrated to Linux platform as indexed files. Advantages of Linux Technology Technology migration provides organizations a number of advantages including: Reduce operational and maintenance cost Usage of current business process along with modern technology Successful migration without affecting the business activities and functionality Less dependency on resources associated with legacy systems. Migration Framework: Migration Challenges FTP Various challenges were encountered in this migration that NIIT Technologies and our client were able to resolve successfully. Mainframe Components (Cobl,JCL, Files, Tdols) Data Files Baseline Data Application Programs (Cobol etc..) JCLs, Procs, Control Cards, Tools etc Outlined below are samples of how these challenges were met and have become a basis for future migrations. One of the key challenges was to come up with an efficient architecture design on the new technology so as to continue the MF box Data Conversion Utilities Cobol Conversion Utilities JCL Conversion Utilities business activities and functionality without being impacted Several brainstorming session, workshops, JAD sessions were Linux Prod Box ASCII Data MF Cobol Shell Scripts initiated to evolve robust system architecture Shell Scripts, MF Cobol, Converted Data Files and Tools Converted Source & Data Shell Execution and Testing Since mainframe database consists of the VSAM files proper and efficient data transfer methodology was necessary. One of the key challenges was the duration of the data transfer between the two environments. Several data transfer tools were considered during the POC to come up with an efficient and robust data Production Migration transfer model 4

5 Use of File Port tool resulted in efficient and quick data transfer for both compressed and uncompressed data between mainframe and Linux platform Mainframe application components (COBOL, EZT s, JCL, SORT utility) were converted to Linux compatible elements using NIIT proprietary tools Issues were encountered and resolved during production parallel which was part of the testing strategy. This enabled the team to identify unknown issues using production data and resolve them before the project implementation Decommissioning of the application on mainframe platform after successful migration without impacting the dependent systems. In order to prevent this risk all the dependent applications were involved during the entire migration cycle. Conclusion The efficient approach to migrate applications from Mainframe to LINUX requires a careful data transfer design, the redesign of applications to run all processes in Linux environment, addressing data precision and data conversion problems, and creating an efficient space management. Applications redesign in the Linux environment also involves JCL and JCL Procedure conversion from Mainframe to LINUX scripts, conversion of COBOL, EZT s, assembler and other mainframe utilities. Many companies in the industry have accepted and performed technology migration which resulted in approximately 40 percent reduction in infrastructure cost, thereby leading them to newer business and technical opportunities. 5

6 About the Author Ashish Massey works as a Technical Specialist at NIIT Technologies. He has over 10 years of experience, including 8 years in insurance domain. He has been instrumental working as an architect and SME in Linux migration projects at NIIT Technologies. About NIIT Technologies NIIT Technologies is a leading IT solutions organization, servicing customers in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. It offers services in Application Development and Maintenance, Enterprise Solutions including Managed Services and Business Process Outsourcing to organisations in the Financial Services, Travel & Transportation, Manufacturing/Distribution, and Government sectors. With employees over 8,000 professionals, NIIT Technologies follows global standards of software development processes. Over the years the Company has forged extremely rewarding relationships with global majors, a testimony to mutual commitment and its ability to retain marquee clients, drawing repeat business from them. NIIT Technologies has been able to scale its interactions with marquee India NIIT Technologies Ltd. Corporate Heights (Tapasya) Plot No. 5, EFGH, Sector 126 Noida-Greater Noida Expressway Noida , U.P., India Ph: Fax: Americas NIIT Technologies Inc., 1050 Crown Pointe Parkway 5 th Floor, Atlanta, GA 30338, USA Ph: Toll Free: NIIT Fax: clients in the BFSI sector, the Travel Transport & Logistics and Manufacturing & Distribution, into extremely meaningful, multi-year "collaborations. NIIT Technologies follows global standards of development, which include ISO 9001:2000 Certification, assessment at Level 5 for SEI-CMMi version 1.2 and ISO information security management certification. Its data center operations are assessed at the international ISO IT management standards. Europe NIIT Technologies Limited 2 nd Floor, 47 Mark Lane London - EC3R 7QQ, U.K. Ph: Fax: Singapore NIIT Technologies Pte. Limited 31 Kaki Bukit Road 3 #05-13 Techlink Singapore Ph: Fax: A leading IT solutions organization 21 locations and 16 countries 8000 professionals Level 5 of SEI-CMMi, ver1.2 ISO certified Level 5 of People CMM Framework Write to us at marketing@niit-tech.com D_43_120413