COPE for IMS and DBCTL

Standardware is an Advanced IBM® de­velopment partner that specializes in main­frame virtualization for IMS. Standardware products increase efficiency, cost control, and employee productivity, while improving time-to-market and software quality in ap­plication development testing and delivery. Standardware has been in business since 1985, and its customers represent some of the largest and most complex environ­ments across the globe.

COPE for IMS allows multiple logical IMS environments to run simultaneously in a single physical IMS system, thereby reduc­ing not only the hardware and software utilization required to support multiple IMS development and test systems, but also costly hardware and software upgrades. COPE for IMS provides additional business flexibility and increases productivity for ap­plication developers, database administra­tors, systems programmers, and opera­tions staff. Within the COPE-managed IMS system, many versions of application systems can be executed simultaneously. Each system can either share or have unique databases, DB2® tables programs, and MFS formats.

COPE for IMS supports different versions of batch or BMP programs and all of the IMS DB and DBRC features, including full function, HALDB, MSDB, and DEDB types. COPE for IMS allows connection to multiple DB2 subsystems, MQ subsys­tems, and CICS® systems from a single physical IMS system.

Developers do not have to change their testing methodology or compile proce­dures to use COPE for IMS. Additional isolated testing environments are available without significant costs.

In the IMS product, applications and databases are defined by compiling macro definitions with names such as DBD, PSB, Stage 1 DYNALLOC. With COPE for IMS, the same source is used and automati­cally modified before being compiled by a COPE-generated job. COPE for IMS changes the names of databases, PSBs, and files before regenerating to allow mul­tiple copies of identically named objects to exist within a single IMS system. Applica­tion program names and application librar­ies are not modified.

COPE for IMS features include:

• Extended DB2 access. Applications in different logical systems in one IMS system can access different sets of like-named DB2 tables, which can be all in one DB2 system.
• DL/I and SQL Call Trace facility, which is for applications operating in IMS message regions. The trace facility is also available for BMP and batch applications.
• Online start/stop application trans­actions, to start and stop user-defined groups of transactions and databases.
• Enhanced abend messages to help developers resolve common pro­gramming errors.
• Automatic registration of databases to DBRC.
• Full MQ and DBRC support.
• Automatic replication of environment definitions.
• Use the IMS TM system to service CICS DL/I access.
• Support for HALDB databases.
• Support for dynamic resource defini­tion (DRD) and the SPOC interface.
• IBM Debug Tool support
• ODMA support for AERTDLI calls
• Support for several related vendor products including Compuware XPEDITOR®, VIASoft®, and BMC DELTA/IMS®.

COPE for DBCTL allows your DBCTL regions to be combined into one physical system or COPE-managed DBCTL region. COPE reduces your system usage for DBCTL and associated DBRC and DLISAS regions.

COPE increases system efficiency by reducing the number of DBCTL systems needed for development, testing, training, system integration, and quality assurance into a single COPE-managed DBCTL region. COPE increases overall capacity using existing systems.

COPE provides additional business capacity and flexibility plus an increase in productivity for all phases of applica­tion development, systems testing and integration, and quality assurance. Within the COPE-managed DBCTL system, you can execute many versions of application systems simultaneously. Each system can either share or have unique DL/I databases and DB2 tables.

COPE supports different versions of and all the features of DBCTL, including full-func­tion, HALDB, MSDB, and DEDB databse types. COPE allows connection to mul­tiple CICS systems from a single physical COPE-managed DBCTL environment.

Using COPE does not change the phases of implementing your applications for pro­duction. Developers do not have to change their development methods or compiled procedures to use COPE. Training, Testing, Quality Assurance, and Integration Staff will work seamlessly with COPE. Additional isolated testing environments are available without additional costs.

COPE for DBCTL features include:

• Full Extended Recovery Facility (XRF) for both CICS and IMS DB/DC.
• CICS Function Shipping.
• Different versions of CICS running simultaneously, for added flexibility.
• Automatic registration of databases to DBRC.
• Automatic replication of environment definitions.

An insurance company has some very large health insurance applications. They also handle government contracts, which require a lot of development. COPE’s support for virtualized development and test environments allows the company to quickly set up IMS environments with­out the machine and software costs for development and testing. They can roll out the environments in hours rather than take days setting up the systems for each environment. Their spokesperson states that they have a lot of requirements for testing environments, and without COPE there would be restrictions and constraints on development and testing. COPE fit transparently into their current change management systems and programming staff. COPE allows the company to run 60+ systems using only 4 IMS physical systems, without any noticeable over­head COPE is critical to their organization because testing and development without COPE is not an option. It would take 60 IMS regions to do this, which would re­quire a lot of hardware and software cost. They wouldn’t have been able to meet their deadlines on the last large application system they put into production without COPE. It’s critical to their life cycle.

Standardware can provide a technical presentation to your organization via a Web conference on request. If you would like additional information send an e-mail to Rick Jones or call 1-866-ASK-COPE. For more information about the Standardware family of prod­ucts, visit www.standardware.com