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Questions tagged [mainframe]

Used for what are generally considered large-scale servers from IBM, Unisys, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and Bull.

The mainframe tag should be used for questions relating to software and operating systems that run on one of these large server platforms, generally regarded as meeting the mainframe label:

  • IBM Z or earlier architectures (z/OS, z/VSE, z/VM, z/TPF, Linux on Z, Hitachi VOS3)
  • Unisys ClearPath (both OS2200 and MCP operating systems)
  • Fujitsu GS21 and older (running MSP/EX)
  • Fujitsu BS2000 S and SE servers (running BS2000/OSD and VM2000), originally by Siemens
  • Hitachi M (VOS3), now replaced by IBM Z
  • Bull (GCOS 8)

It does not apply to mid-range machines such as IBM's I (formerly known as AS/400).

28 questions
235
votes
9 answers

Purpose of a "mystery key" on an IBM PC 3270 keyboard

A colleague has just come into possession of a large number of IBM PC 3270 keyboards (don't ask!). These keyboards have a number of very interesting looking keys, but the one that most intrigued us is the one at the bottom right of the block…
Cowan
  • 1,601
8
votes
8 answers

What exactly is a mainframe and what exactly does a programmer do on that?

I have searched (googled) a lot but nothing answers me clearly. From what I get, "huge" computers with "many" CPUs running "legacy" software written in "legacy" languages are mainframes and the programmers "maintain" them. I am confused. Firstly,…
Rama
  • 81
4
votes
3 answers

Why were some early computer displays circular?

I was looking at information on early computers and noticed some had what appear to be circular CRT displays, such as in the following images. Gerald J Sussman at PDP-6 and 340 Display from MIT Csail People using PDP-6 from University of Western…
Dorik
  • 51
4
votes
3 answers

Building an improvised 'supercomputer' by connecting a number of used PCs in a LAN

I am in ongoing development of a simple but processor intensive computer program that I use for scientific research. It would be really helpful to have more processing speed. Right now I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.7 on a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo and my…
Matt Munson
  • 153
  • 9
4
votes
1 answer

How to audit who changed the limit on a GDG (Generation Data Group)?

I have a situation where someone has changed the limit of a GDG (Generation Data Group) and I need to track down who made the change. I know the command will be something like: ALTER gdg-base LIMIT(xx) Is this type of change audited by System…
Hogstrom
  • 1,587
3
votes
3 answers

IZUG846W: An HTTP request for a z/OSMF REST service was received from a remote site

I setup z/OSMF and I am receiving this error when attempting to access the url https://my.zos.com/zosmf/restjobs/jobs. { “errorID”:“IZUG846W”,“errorMsg”:“IZUG846W: An HTTP request for a z/OSMF REST service was received from a remote site. The…
Hogstrom
  • 1,587
3
votes
1 answer

chtag does not work on z/OS UNIX

I'm trying to tag ASCII files on z/OS host shell, so we do not have to specify the code page on the command line. > echo > iso.txt > chtag -t -c 819 iso.txt > vi iso.txt Type in "Hello" then quit and save > ls -T iso.txt t ISO8859-1 T=on …
Stavr00
  • 351
2
votes
1 answer

FTP ASCII file from Windows to Mainframe (iSeries) — special characters

I have a text file created on a Windows machine, the page coding used on the file is 1252 This file is then ftp'd to an iSeries machine for processing As far as I can see, it appears on the iSeries. It has a CCSID of 037. Sometimes this file…
MikeM
2
votes
0 answers

REST JES Job Completion notification not working

I am writing a REST client application, destined to be open source, that submits jobs to JES using zOSMF. It works but zOSMF doesn't appear to be calling my notification server when the job completes. This is a page from IBM where I am getting my…
BigTFromAZ
  • 121
2
votes
2 answers

Record Editor Cobol To Csv

I have a problem that I'm facing with Record Editor and trying to convert COBOL data and Copybook files to CSV. I'm stuck at a point where "Generate Code for Cobol Copybook creates a preview that is accurate, but I'm not able to export it because…
primesc
  • 43
2
votes
1 answer

How do I specify an MVS data set name when using lftp?

We have a Linux server that needs to send a file to a z/OS mainframe using FTPS. How do we specify the MVS data set name we want to create? When we try to FTP the file, it always prepends the mainframe user ID to the data set name.
Matt
  • 21
2
votes
1 answer

Is there a way for a USS shell process to easily access MVS symbols such as `&SYSNAME`?

When writing scripts for execution in USS I'd like to be able to access z/OS symbols like &SYSNAME. Ideally, it would be nice to access them as environment variables but if there is a command sequence I'd be satisfied with that. Here is the…
Hogstrom
  • 1,587
2
votes
1 answer

SFTP processing from mainframe to server with Crush FTP software failing key authentication

We are in the process of converting all FTP mainframe jobs to SFTP. I used the ssh-keygen -f id_dsa_userid command to create the key pairs. Sent the public key to client to be copied into their authorized_keys file. When job is executed, I get the…
Stephanie Reed
  • 21
2
votes
1 answer

ibm as400 model 9406-270

I'm a fan of the mainframe world, I've always played with a mainframe emulated by Hercules, yesterday I had the opportunity to buy a used as400, I got all the cables and etc. Now I need to know how to access the mainframe with terminal... This is…
Alexandre
  • 129
1
vote
1 answer

What is meant by distributed architecture in the context of old fashioned 1960s mainframes?

Here it says the CDC 6600 had a distributed architecture. It had a distributed architecture (central scientific processor supported by ten very fast peripheral machines) Can anyone elaborate on what this means? Why would they have separate…
Celeritas
  • 8,341
1
2