UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi all,

I work for a large corporation and I've become involved in a project that has been tasked with evaluating the feasibility, or otherwise, of the Unix platform for running some of our production system. Our background is predominantly mainframe and I need some help identifying 'best of breed' applications in the Unix environment. Some of the people who will end up developing on the Unix will be mainframe people who will be retrained. From our extensive mainframe experience we think we have a decent idea of which types of tools will be required on a day-to-day basis, but I expect there will be some gaps in our knowledge and I'm hoping that some of you can help me out.

For a number of years, we'll run the Unix and z/OS mainframe in parallel and data will have to be transferred back and forth between the two. The batch system will be written in COBOL. There's a front-end written in Java, running on websphere servers, that will need to access data on the Unix platform.

Here's what I know for sure:
- the hardware will be Sun Solaris
- we'll be using Korn shell
- the database on the Unix platform will be Oracle
- the COBOL IDE will very probably be Micro Focus Net Express, running on the developers WinXP workstations
- we'll run Samba

Here's what we think we need:
- a tool for writing and testing scripts
- a SORT utility that can be executed from a script
- a script scheduler that supports predicate/dependancy requirements (restart features would be nice too)
- source control tool
- ISAM editor that supports the use of record layouts
- tool for comparing files
- tool for accessing the Oracle database
- a tool for transferring/converting files between Unix and the mainframe (we're looking at Fileport for this, but would like another candidate or two)
- report generation tool, perhaps two, a very powerful one for the developers, and a simpler, more user-friendly one for the end-users

We would be ok with open source solutions, although licensing costs won't be an issue either. Our focus is on getting the best possible tools that will be robust and powerful enough to support an enterprise-level system.

Hopefully I've provided enough information for someone to give me some advice, but if I need to clarify anything, please let me know.

thanks for taking the time to read this, any advice you can offer will be much appreciated.

We had a similar environment - the mainframe is now gone.
I have some items for you to consider:

Code:

Here's what we think we need:

- a tool for writing and testing scripts
Once you learn more about scripting, you'l find that ksh has a lot of builtin 
functionailty to do some of this.  We don't have a script testing tool per se.
For java consider something like junit for unit testing.

- a SORT utility that can be executed from a script
Syncsort is a very robust but expensive sort tool
- a script scheduler that supports predicate/dependancy requirements (restart features would be nice too)
AppWorx is VERY good. 

- source control tool
See: Serena ChangeMan and  Serena TeamTrack.  They Automate change control really well, and TeamTrack lets you customize and control each step of the Change Control Process

- ISAM editor that supports the use of record layouts
No suggestion

- tool for comparing files
UNIX has these already.

- tool for accessing the Oracle database
Toad, PL/SQL Developer, Oracle has a free add-on with similar functionality

- a tool for transferring/converting files between Unix and the mainframe (we're looking at Fileport for this, but would like another candidate or two)
No suggestions.  

- report generation tool, perhaps two, a very powerful one for the developers, and a simpler, more user-friendly one for the end-users

UNIX has these already.  perl is an excellent tool that is designed to work
agaoinst loads of data sources, including Oracle. It is a defacto standard.  ruby & python are also great for this.

The really big point is: UNIX has a LOAD of builtin tools for things. Our mainframe guys have never really gotten good with those tools, and are amazed that I can write literally less than 5 lines of code that does what hundreds of lines of COBOL and JCL used to do.

Don't underestimate UNIX tools.

thanks for the info.

I think Syncsort will fit our needs, we have a lot of experience with this on the mainframe.

I'll take a look at the other products you suggested.

thanks