Impact on CA Endevor due to COBOL V6.2 Upgrade

[Padma Krishnan]

​I need guidance and direction on performing the complete Impact Analysis on the changes to be done on Endevor in relation to the COBOL V6.2 Upgrade. Kindly share the latest inputs on this topic as I am not a very experienced person in accessing CA Endevor.

[Edward Marks]

Hi Padma, 

An upgrade to COBOL 6.2 and reporting in Endevor can both be lengthy topics so it depends what you mean when you say 'complete impact analysis'. I suggest you talk to IBM about upgrading to COBOL 6.2, they have a wealth of information available and the challenges facing you will be specific to your site. Once you have identified the challenges at your site, if you need to run some reports against Endevor then you can post your requirements here.

Common issues organisations are seeing when migrating to COBOL 6 (from COBOL 4.2 or earlier) are:

• Load Libraries are not PDSEs
• Issues with invalid data in programs.
• COBOL 6 cannot exist in the same run time unit as a COBOL OS/VS or COBOL II program (cannot call or be called by). 
• A larger REGION size required when compiling programs.

If you're already on COBOL 5 there is less of a jump. 

Ed

[Padma Krishnan]

​Hi Ed,

Thanks a lot for your response and suggestions !!

I am currently working on CA Endevor SCM V 18.0.05 along with Enterprise COBOL V 4.2.

I wanted to know what all changes need to be done from Endevor perspective as part of the Cobol V6.2 migration.

I am aware of the pre-requisite of converting the PDS Load libraries to PDSE format and I was able to complete the same. I understand that there are considerable changes to be done in the Compiler options or steps within the Compile jobs associated with the Processors in Endevor which is where I need the expert guidance.

Kindly clarify if the Region size parameter needs to be defaulted to 200M in the job cards within the Compile jobs.

Thanks,
Padma

[Edward Marks]

As mentioned before, IBM will be best placed to advise you on compile options, changes to the compile step, appropriate region size. This will all depend on what you've currently got at your site.

[Jesus Landeros Silva]

In my own experience i would to say the main prerequisite is change PDS to PDSE libraries. Among different requirements this is the biggest.

You need to follow a stategy from PDS to PDSE modules. Keeping in mind al time your installation. I mean, al time following the recommended best IBM's and Endevor's practices in this activity.

[Russ Gunter]

If you are updating your processors to go from COBOL 4.2 to 6.2 you need to remember the SYSUT* work areas required for COBOL 6.* as well.

And it is up to you but if you are upgrading from 4.2 why go ahead and put in 6.3?

 

Russ Gunter

CA Broadcom Consultant

Internal Revenue Service

Cell: [phone]

(TOD) Mon –  Fri  7:45 AM - 4:15 PM Eastern

 

"Never forget, 'Some gave all, All gave some'"

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit", Harry S. Truman

"None of us is as smart as all of us." ― Ken Blanchard

 

[Russ Gunter]

Correction on a typo. Should say,

And it is up to you but if you are upgrading from 4.2 why not go ahead and put in 6.3?

 

Russ Gunter

CA Broadcom Consultant

Internal Revenue Service

Cell: [phone]

(TOD) Mon –  Fri  7:45 AM - 4:15 PM Eastern

 

"Never forget, 'Some gave all, All gave some'"

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit", Harry S. Truman

"None of us is as smart as all of us." ― Ken Blanchard

 

[kathy.decker1.1]

In addition to a larger region size (we went to 0M),  we also found we had to add MEMLIMIT to our jobcard (we used 1T)

 

Katherine Decker IT Senior  Engineer – Deployment Ops - Mainframe Express Scripts  W  201-269-6325  http://esidepartments.express-scripts.com/sites/DEP187/relops/SitePages/Home.aspx Link to sweep reports:  http://esidepartments/sites/DEP190/EAM/EAM%20System%20Metric/Forms/AllItems.aspx Playbook site: EAM Release Operations Playbook Link My Webex URL: https://esrx.webex.com/meet/kathy_decker My Webex Meeting id: 665 370 430 Webex Phone Numbers: United States Toll Free 8664990396,  United States Toll [phone]

 

 

[Philip Gineo]

This may be helpful:
https://community.broadcom.com/mainframesoftware/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=1597&MessageKey=311bf3aa-4d01-4bd0-bb05-fae350dc99e5&CommunityKey=592eb6c9-73f7-460f-9aa9-e5194cdafcd2&tab=digestviewer

------------------------------
Phil Gineo
Senior Systems Engineer
Aetna / CVS Health
Hartford Connecticut USA
------------------------------

[ANEESH DATTA]

Hi Padma,


One more thing which can be highlighted is , compared to cobol4,  Cobol 6 supports integrated DB2 Precompiling and CICS Translation, which means in the Endevor -Cobol processor, You NEED NOT have to code 3 different processor Steps for DB2 Precompile, CICS Translation and Cobol Compilation. All these 3 are taken care in a single Integrated Step which is a Special feature and a transformation in Cobol 6.

You just need to pass the Program Source to the Step, and with the right set of Compiler options(integrated with SQL and CICS options for DB2 and CICS respectively) you can pullout Cobol Load, DBRM o/p and the CICS load all in a single step. Refer the manual for more information on Compiler Parameters.

I hope this info would help you.

Regards,
Aneesh

[Chris McGavic]

Once Endevor is setup to use Cobol 6.2 is it still possible to compile back to 4.2 if you have an issue with a 6.2 program? Is there a techdoc addressing this?

[Philip Gineo]

When switching from one version of COBOL to another, keep in mind the runtime LE executables can be different between the different versions of COBOL.

------------------------------
Phil Gineo
Senior Systems Engineer
Aetna / CVS Health
Hartford Connecticut USA
------------------------------

[Dave Harding]

Hi Chris, 

Short answer is yes- the COBOL v4 compiler is just a STEPLIB away. COBOL v4 works fine with PDSEs and the extra DD's needed by IGYCRCTL. And,  with some IF / THEN / ELSE coding, you can have one processor that does both. 

If you're using processor groups to determine compiler options the initial reaction might be to double your processor groups; one set for v4 anther for v6. Before you head down that path, consider the use of a new type; OPTIONS, in which the developers specify which version of COBOL a particular program should use - i.e.  the OPTIONS element have the same name as the type COBOL element and the processor then looks for it. If found, a utility can be built to scan the OPTIONS element looking for a specific string and set the return code; rc=0 if not found, rc=1 if the string is found. With this, you can code your IF / THEN / ELSE to pick a STEPLIB based on the rc of the scan step.  

Example-

OPTIONS element ABC123

   LATEST_COBOL=N

OPTIONS element XYZ987

   LATEST_COBOL=Y

With this, COBOL element ABC123 would STEPLIB to COBOL v4 and COBOL element XYZ987 would use COBOL v6