PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: tcVISION v6 Overview and Updates

Several exciting new features and updates are now in tcVISION v6, including new output targets Adabas LUW, DB2 BLU, EXASOL, Hadoop,and MongoDB. Additionally, new input sources include z/OS VSAM Logstream (CICS and Coupling Facility / Shared VSAM),z/OS VSAM Batch Extension, z/OS DBMS to Logstream, CA IDMS v17, CA Datacom CDC, IMS Active Log and SMF data.

Another feature recently announced is the tcVISION “Direct Loader” for BULK_LOAD processing. The function does not require output to a sequential file, and the loader utility for the target DBMS is called via API with data passed directly. Direct loader supports PostGreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server and DB2 LUW / DB2 BLU. The advantage of using the Direct Loader is the elimination of disk access in writing and reading the sequential loader data file. File output is still supported (e.g., where loader data is to be distributed to other machines).

Finally, as mentioned in a previous Treehouse Blog, with tcVISION v6 comes the newly enhanced web statistics functionality and web server. Any standard web browser can access this server (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, etc.)

This valuable feature enables users to view data from the tcVISION Manager Monitor, and statistical and operational information from the tcVISION Manager network.

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Find out more about tcVISION — Enterprise ETL and Real-Time Data Replication Through Change Data Capture

tcVISION provides easy and fast data migration for mainframe application modernization projects and enables bi-directional data replication between mainframe, Linux, Unix and Windows platforms.

Visit the Treehouse Software website for more information on tcVISION, or contact us to discuss your needs.

Customer Success: tcVISION / Hadoop Integration

BAWAG P.S.K. is one of the largest and most profitable banks of Austria with more than 1.6 million private and business customers and a well known brand in the country. The business strategy is oriented towards low risk and high efficiency. Business segments are Retail Banking and Small Business, Corporate Lending and Investments and Treasury Services and Markets. The center of the BAWAG P.S.K. business strategy is the offering of easy to understand, transparent and first-rate products and services which meet the requirements of the customers.

The BAWAG P.S.K. Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft and Österreichische Postsparkasse Aktiengesellschaft ” (P.S.K.), Vienna, operates their IT on the z/OS operating system. The corporate data is stored in DB2 databases. ORACLE is the database platform for the Open System environments. In relationship with another project P.S.K already had a client component of tcVISION installed. Magister Markus Lechner, Head IT Applications: “tcVISION was already in use and we had good experiences as far as functionally and support is concerned. Because we were in the planning process for the implementation of another project, we included tcVISION in the list of software solutions. The goal of this project has been the reduction of the load on the IBM mainframe and as a result the reduction of costs. The intention was to offload data from our core database system to a less expensive system in real-time and to provide read access from that system to the new infrastructure. The reasons for this were constantly increasing CPU costs on the mainframe because of the growing transaction load of the Online Banking, Mobile Banking, and Self Service devices. A large percentage of the load was caused by Read-Only-Transactions.” Markus Lechner: “After the tcVISION presentation, we arranged a Proof Of Concept. The important aspects of the POC were not only the functionality of tcVISION within the project but we also wanted to see whether our expectations would be met related to performance and CPU consumption on the mainframe. In addition to tcVISION, we also evaluated another product. All of our expectations have been met to our full satisfaction during the POC and we made the decision to go ahead with tcVISION.”

After a short implementation period, the project is now in production for one year. Markus Lechner describes the project: “The primary objective of the project with tcVISION was the reduction of CPU load on the mainframe to reduce our costs. Our intention was to offload data from our core database system to a less expensive system in real-time and to provide read access from that system to the new infrastructure.

We use tcVISION for the realtime replication and we use Apache Hadoop as a cost efficient system for the storage of the data. In addition to the primary usage scenario we have the benefit to also cover additional use cases. This includes Real-time-EventHandling & Stream Processing, Analytics based upon real-time data as well as the possibility to report and analyze structured and unstructured data with excellent performance. The system can be inexpensively operated on Commodity Hardware and has no scalability limitations. Compared to the savings the costs of replication (CPU consumption) of tcVISION are very low. The support provided  was excellent during the implementation phase and also during the production phase. Inquiries by telephone or E-mail cause prompt reactions. Problems that came up during this period were solved as soon as possible even when the tcVISION software had to be extended.” There are additional plans to extend the use of tcVISION in the future. One is to implement real-time replication from ORACLE into the data lake.

Magister Markus Lechner draws a conclusion: “tcVISION enables us to significantly reduce our mainframe cost through a real-time replication to a less expensive environment. tcVISION performs a very economical log file based replication. In addition we are now in a position to implement numerous application cases based upon the replicated data which would have been too expensive and resource intensive on the mainframe. Realtime-Event-handling, Realtime-Analytics, Realtime-Fraud Prevention are only a few of the use cases that we currently cover.”

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tcVISION

tcVISION enables bidirectional replication for DB2, Oracle, and SQL Server running on Linux/Unix/Windows, and synchronizes each data source, first by doing a bulk load from source(s) to target and then by replicating only changes— only committed changes—from source(s) to target. So there can never be ambiguity as to whether a query against the target database involves uncommitted data.

Read other tcVISON customer success stories here.

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Visit the Treehouse Software website for more information on tcVISION, or contact us to discuss your needs.

Treehouse Software Products and Professional Services for Adabas / Natural Help with ALLETE’s Mainframe Retirement

by Mike Kuechenberg, Senior Technical Representative at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Since 2010, Treehouse Software consultants have provided product training and Professional Services for the planned retirement of the mainframe environment at ALLETE.

Here’s a look at three parts of the project in which Treehouse was involved:

tRelational / DPS

In order to replicate Adabas data to Oracle, ALLETE licensed Treehouse’s tRelational / DPS product set. After some initial training by Treehouse Professional Services, ALLETE staff were able to model and map Adabas files to Oracle schemata using tRelational, and to deploy DPS jobs to materialize (ETL) and propagate (CDC) the Adabas data into Oracle. This continued until the final cutover to the new systems. Just before the mainframe was decommissioned, some additional Adabas files were materialized by Treehouse Professional Services for archival purposes.

DBA Consulting

Treehouse Professional Services took over the DBA responsibilities for ALLETE starting in September 2010. The responsibilities included Software AG product upgrades, daily checks on available database space and file extents, and requests from ALLETE staff like file restores, field maintenance, and any other request requiring DBA involvement.

Systems Support

Additionally, Treehouse Professional Services assumed responsibility for ALLETE’s mainframe systems programming activities. Tasks included monthly IPLs to the system, applying licenses to products, handling system error situations, defining new DASD, upgrading IBM and third-party products, providing periodic SOX reports, and handling other requests from ALLETE staff.

Conclusion of a Successful Engagement

As this five-year Treehouse Software / ALLETE partnership ends, we wish our friends all the best as they move forward with their new systems and strategies.

“During the time our companies have been working together, Treehouse personnel were always responsive and are experts in their fields. Thanks for the flexibility and great support over the years.”

– Eric Peterson, Manager, IT Infrastructure, ITS Systems, ALLETE Inc.

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About Treehouse Software Professional Services

Treehouse Professional Services offer a proven, cost-effective alternative to full-time in-house systems programmers, system administrators and DBAs. Using our team of experts and monitoring techniques, Treehouse offers world-class, on-site and remote system support and DBA service at affordable prices. Treehouse Professional Services offer various levels of system monitoring and administration. Our team will monitor critical factors within your Software AG environment, apply preventive maintenance for your systems and databases, and keep your software up-to-date. We even provide z/OS systems programming services! We are strongly committed to our customers’ success and we deliver the highest quality DBA and support solutions.

Visit the Treehouse Software website for more information on Treehouse Professional Services, or contact us to discuss your needs.

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About Treehouse Software’s tRelational / DPS Product Set

tRelational / DPS is a robust product set that provides modeling and data transfer of legacy ADABAS data into modern RDBMS-based platforms for Internet/Intranet/Business Intelligence applications. Treehouse Software designed these products to meet the demands of large, complex environments requiring product maturity, productivity, feature-richness, efficiency and high performance.

The tRelational component provides complete analysis, modeling and mapping of ADABAS files and data elements to the target RDBMS tables and columns. DPS (Data Propagation System) performs Extract, Transformation, and Load (ETL) functions for the initial bulk RDBMS load and incremental Change Data Capture (CDC) batch processing to synchronize ADABAS updates with the target RDBMS.

Visit the Treehouse Software website for more information on tRelational / DPS, or contact us to discuss your needs.