Chapter 18: Migrating from PROXMVS

PROXMVS is a front-end to Workbench (and its add-ons), intended to make it seem more familiar to mainframe users by giving it a mainframe-style user interface. This chapter describes facilities in Mainframe Express to help you migrate applications created using Workbench + PROXMVS.

18.1 Overview

For an introduction to the Mainframe Express interface, see the chapter Using Mainframe Express. It is a graphical interface, resembling Animator V2 in Workbench. However, Mainframe Express includes JCL support based on that in PROXMVS.

Since applications created using Workbench + PROXMVS are Workbench applications, all the advice on migration given in the COBOL Workbench part of this book applies. In addition, your data files will be in the format supported by PROXMVS and be in catalogs supported by PROXMVS, and so they must be migrated to Mainframe Express format and catalogs. Mainframe Express includes facilities to help you do this.

The ProxDM commands used to maintain the PROXMVS catalog, such as adding and removing files, are not included. The PROXMVS catalog is accessible only for importing files into the Mainframe Express catalog.

18.2 Converting Catalog Entries

A migration tool is supplied, which reads a PROXMVS catalog file and adds entries to the Mainframe Express catalog that point to the files in the PROXMVS catalog directory tree. The Mainframe Express catalog is created if it doesn't exist. The existing files are not moved or relocated and no new data files are created.

The migration tool is not on the Mainframe Express menus. Run it from the Mainframe Express Command Prompt, and follow its prompts. Its command line is:

mfcvtpxc folder1 folder2

where the parameters are:

*folder1*	Folder containing the PROXMVS catalog.
*folder2*	Folder to contain the Mainframe Express catalog.

If you enter mfcvtpxc with no parameters, the utility prompts you for them. Notice that you give just the paths to the folders - you don't include the names of the catalog files themselves.

Notes:

Both system and user catalogs are supported. If you specify a PROXMVS catalog directory which has user catalogs defined for any user ID, you can choose which one to convert. A list of user IDs is presented, then a list of defined user catalogs is given.
This tool provides a 'snapshot' of the PROXMVS catalog at the time you ran the tool. If you continue to use PROXMVS, Mainframe Express's view of the catalog will not be kept in sync. Therefore you cannot use the two products concurrently. If you want to continue using PROXMVS, you should make a copy of the PROXMVS catalog directory tree in one of your Mainframe Express project folders (using xcopy /s /e /v) and run the migration tool on that.
MFCVTPXC converts only whole catalogs at a time. It cannot handle importing individual datasets from the PROXMVS catalog. To do that, use the Mainframe Express Catalog View functions such as Allocate and Add Existing Dataset.

18.3 Using Your PROXMVS Files

Files that have been created by PROXMVS are supported by Mainframe Express. They use a different PC filename convention. The dots (.) in the MVS dataset-name are changed to backslashes (\) to create a location for the file.

To enable this naming convention, click Project Settings on the Project menu, then click the Catalog tab and select Convert dots to subdirectories. Note that an invalid PC filename results if an MVS node is the same as a reserved Windows device-name, such as con, lpt1, lpt2, or prn.

MFCVTPXC imports the catalog entry only. In most cases you will be able to access the data files from your Mainframe Express applications without modification. There are some exceptions however. In this release, ESDS datasets require special handling - see the section Converting ESDS Files below.

The naming convention used by PROXMVS is shown in the following table.

Organization	PC Filename	MVS Dataset Name	Comment
VSAM - Data	catalog-location\TEST\ SAMPLE\VSAM12.DAT	TEST.SAMPLE.VSAM12
VSAM - Index	catalog-location\TEST\ SAMPLE\VSAM12.IDX
Sequential	catalog-location\TEST\ SAMPLE\TEXT1.DAT	TEST.SAMPLE.TEXT1
Partitioned - Library	catalog-location\TEST\ JCL\CNTL	TEST.JCL.CNTL
Partitioned - Member	catalog-location\TEST\ JCL\CNTL\SAMPLE1	TEST.JCL.CNTL(SAMPLE1)	Any (or no) file extension can be used.
Generation Data Group	catalog-location\TEST\ SAMPLE\ GDG\GnnnnV00.DAT	TEST.SAMPLE.GDG(0)	nnnn is assigned by Mainframe Express.

In PROXMVS, you can define a PDS with any kind of extension (including none) on the physical files that are its members, since PROXMVS is not sensitive to file types. Mainframe Express, on the other hand, requires that files have specific extensions depending on their type (for example, .jcl for jobstreams, .cbl for COBOL sources).

Since MFCVTPXC has no way of knowing what sort of files are in a given PDS, it gives a warning whenever it encounters a PDS with a blank default extension. It will migrate the catalog entries for the PDS model and its members, but Mainframe Express may not handle the datasets correctly - you can view them, but Mainframe Express won't submit them as jobstreams or compile them as programs because it doesn't have an association for a blank extension. You should manually rename and recatalog the files in that directory (for example, ren *. *.jcl) to make Mainframe Express handle them correctly.

18.4 Converting ESDS Files

To convert an ESDS file:

Under PROXMVS, run an IDCAMS step to REPRO the ESDS file to a new sequential dataset and note the name of the PC file created.
Start Mainframe Express and use the Add Existing Dataset catalog function to catalog the PC file created in step 1.
Under Mainframe Express, run an IDCAMS step to DEFINE the new ESDS file and REPRO the sequential file into it.

In both products you can do the above by either running batch jobstreams or using the Interactive AMS functions included in both products.

18.5 Copying Files

If you want to copy all the data files referenced by your PROXMVS catalog into a folder (for example, to copy them to a Mainframe Express project's data folder), copy the PROXMVS catalog folder and all the folders subordinate to it.