Re: HELP! MVS to Solaris-packed fields!

From: Bill Manry - Oracle Corporation <bmanry_at_upsizeme.us.oracle.com>
Date: 4 Jan 1995 18:33:33 GMT
Message-ID: <3eeplt$q3b_at_dcsun4.us.oracle.com>


David Scott (dscott_at_is.net) wrote:
>We are beginning a project that will need to read MVS VSAM files and load
>them into an Oracle database running on a SUN Sparc1000 with Solaris. Does
>anyone have SQL*Loader scripts that can do this, or advice on how to
>proceed? I'm concerned with the simultaneous EBCDIC-ASCII conversion along
>with the reading of packed field and packed signed fields.

The natural way to do this is to run SQL*Loader on MVS with a SQL*Net connection to your Sun RDBMS. Character set translation and number conversion are built in (assuming you have described your input records properly in the Loader control file). If you have Oracle products on MVS then this is your first choice.

An "unnatural" alternative is to convert your VSAM file to a flat file (using e.g. IDCAMS REPRO), move it to the Sun via ftp or hand-carry a tape copy, and run SQL*Loader on the Sun with the CHARACTERSET option indicating EBCDIC input. This does NOT work with number datatypes that have different representation on the target system than on the source...true for floats in your case, but you should be ok with binary and packed decimals. A variation here is to write a small program to run on the mainframe  that unloads your VSAM file in all-character form and so avoids the number representation problem on the target.

The most robust solution involves using one of our Transparent Gateway products that makes non-Oracle data look and "act" like Oracle table data. One that supports MVS VSAM is supposed to be released this year.

/b



Bill Manry
Oracle Corp. / Mainframe & Integration Technologies / BManry_at_us.oracle.com #include <disclaimer.usual> Received on Wed Jan 04 1995 - 19:33:33 CET

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