DB2 and with different file systems like Flat Files, COBOL VSAM files. Profiled the data using Informatica Data. MS DTS supports VSAM files? Data Warehousing Informatica 8.6. Informatica PowerExchange™ for VSAMUnlock Complex Data. Today’s IT organizations face growing demand for timely access to. Informatica Developer and other Tech resumes on DevBistro.com. Ms-Access, COBOL, Mainframe, Excel, XML, VSAM files and Flat Files. Informatica PowerExchange. Today’s IT organizations face growing demand for timely access to critical operational data stored in VSAM files on IBM zSeries mainframes. Hello, How is PowerExchange used for extracting data from VSAM files - Pls. Let me know through screenshots, if possible. Thanks a lot, kpr.

Normalizer transformation :
Normalizer transformation is used with COBOL sources, which are often stored in a denormalized format. The OCCURS statement in a COBOL file nests multiple records of information in a single record. We can use Normalizer transformation, to break out repeated data within a record into separate records. For each new record it creates, the Normalizer transformation generates a unique identifier.
Step 1: Create the Copybook for COBOL source
First Step is to get the copybook from Mainframe Team and convert that Informatica Compliant format
It will look like

Normally Highlighted section is provided by Mainframe team convert it into format required by format by adding line above that code (From identification to fd FNAME) and below that code (starting from working storage division). After changes save the file as .cbl file
Point to be taken care while editing .cbl File
You might get following error

identification division.
program-id. mead.
environment division.
select Error at line 6 : parse error
Things to be taken care of

1.Line Select FNAME should not start before column position 12
2.Other line which have been added above and below should not start before column 9
3.All the line in structure (Highlighted above) should end with Dot.
Once Cobol Source is imported successfully you can drag Normalizer source into mapping
Step 2: Set Workflow Properties Properly for VSAM Source
One you have successfully imported the COBOL copybook then you can create your mapping using VSAM Source. After creating mapping you can create your workflow
Please take care of following properties in session containing VSAM source
In Source Advance File properties set the following options (Highlighted one)

Imp: Always ask for COBOL source file to be in Binary Format, Otherwise you will face lot of problems with COMP-3 Fields
Once you have set these properties you can run your workflow.
COMP3 FIELDS:
COBOL Comp-3 is a binary field type that puts ('packs') two digits into each byte, using a notation called Binary Coded Decimal, or BCD. This halves the storage requirements compared to a character, or COBOL 'display', field. Comp-3 is a common data type, even outside of COBOL
Common issues faced while working with Comp-3 Fields :
If you have created your created cobol source definition with comp-3 fields (Packed Data) but actual data in source file is not packed .So Make sure that in both the definition and source file date is in same format
Check whether COMP-3 fields are signed or unsigned My Profile

VSAM can be found on almost every mainframe. In some cases it is hardly used and in other cases there are full featured mission-critical applications based on VSAM. A number of factors are driving enterprises worldwide to modernize from VSAM to SQL Server.

Why Move Data From VSAM to SQL Server?

The challenges of VSAM are straightforward- the business wants to leverage the data housed in VSAM, but it’s not a database. It’s a file management system. Loosely speaking, therefore, it is “closer to the disk” than the DBMS is. In fact, the DBMS is typically built on top of some kind of file manager. Thus, the user of a file management systems will be able to create and destroy stored files and perform simple retrieval and update operations on stored records in such files.

In contrast to the DBMS, file managers:

are not aware of the internal structure of the stored records, and hence cannot handle requests that rely on a knowledge of that structure (such as “find all employees with salary less than $50,000”).
provide little or no support for security and integrity rules
provide little or no support for recovery and concurrency controls
have no true data dictionary concept
provide much less data independence than the DBMS does

What Scenarios Drive VSAM to SQL Server Modernization?

In summary, SQL Server’s ability to efficiently manage many concurrent users, very large databases, and high transaction rates on multiple platforms makes it a better choice than VSAM in most situations. Let’s break it down.

VSAM provides a number of data set types or data organization schemes. They are:

Key-sequenced data set (KSDS)
Entry-sequenced data set (ESDS)
Relative record data set (RRDS)
Variable-length relative record data set (VRRDS)
Linear data set (LDS)

When we work with customers evaluating the transition from VSAM to SQL Server, the top business drivers are:

Better Data Management: The interaction between batch, online and other data exchange activities and queries is much more efficient- so performance is improved and deeper data analysis can be performed.
Cost: Proprietary language licenses and maintenance are typically expensive. Further development of such applications can be time consuming, restrictive and expensive.
Resource availability: It is increasingly difficult to find qualified staff with the ability to administer, maintain or indeed further develop nonrelational/hierarchical data tiers.
Availability: The market place has over the years of course reacted to the emergence of relational databases, and now there is little or no availability of mainstream hierarchical database systems and acceptable support models.

The top technical matters driving VSAM to SQL Server transition are:

SQL Server provides high level of scalability. VSAM is tightly coupled with the mainframe and hence has a restricted choice of platform.
SQL Server provides a high degree of security in the sense that the unit of data that can be individually protected ranges all the way from an entire table to a specific data value at a specific row-and-column position. In VSAM the security options are fairly limited and can be only at Dataset level.
SQL Server has support of a rich suite of tools/products for the whole range of activities like administration, management, data manipulation, data replication, data warehousing, performance monitoring, archival and report generation. Performance of VSAM applications is heavily dependent on the initial design and there is very little scope of tuning later.
SQL Server is web-enabled with built in Java support. SQL Server data can be accessed from various systems using standard TCP/IP, ODBC, X/Open CLI, JDBC and SQLJ.
SQL Server supports disaster recovery. A disaster recovery copy of data can be easily identified by SQL Server. There is no separate disaster recovery mechanism for VSAM.

VSAM to SQL Server Conversion Solution

Vsam Files In Cobol

The Modern Systems VSAM conversion strategy includes the generation of a new relational database to replace the functionality, redefinitions, type-of-record indicators, and other data element structures that are currently part of most VSAM files. The new target database can reside on the mainframe or off the mainframe, and can use any of the standard relational database management systems (RDBMS): Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle or IBM DB2. The VSAM transformation process is automated.

Modern Systems also handles the conversion of the applications that use the VSAM files. Modern Systems can convert COBOL, PL/1, Assembler, JCL and Procs for VSAM applications.

The Modern Systems solution provides a complete replacement for all VSAM file functionality including multi-view records, occurring fields, indexes and more:

Vsam Files In Informatica Data