Oracle’s Tuxedo 11g Redefines Mainframe Rehosting

Oracle Corp. is shipping Tuxedo 11g, the latest upgrade to its Tuxedo transaction processing platform. With its range of upgrades, Tuxedo 11g offers automated tooling, SOA-enablement and mainframe caliber integrity to cut complexity, cost and risk from mainframe modernization projects.

by Vance McCarthy

Tags: Tuxedo, Oracle, rehosting, mainframe modernization, COBOL, C/C++, SOA,

tuxedo-logoOracle Corp. is shipping Tuxedo 11g, the latest upgrade to its Tuxedo transaction processing platform. With its range of upgrades, Tuxedo 11g offers automated tooling, SOA-enablement and mainframe caliber integrity to cut complexity, cost and risk from mainframe modernization projects.
 
Tuxedo 11g delivers enhanced scalability, performance and SOA support for a wide array of mission-critical C/C++ and COBOL applications, and even supports popular non-Java scripting languages Ruby and Python. “Think about Tuxedo 11g as an application server for the non-Java programmer,” Ajay Patel, vice president of Oracle Fusion Middleware told IDN.

“Tuxedo 11g brings together automation, SOA and mainframe QoS requirements, such as transaction integrity,” Patel said. The result: Tuxedo 11g simplifies rehosting projects with automated tools, eliminates costs and risks of recoding, and delivers end-to-end application and transaction integrity -- across web services, SOA, Java app server and mainframe environments, he said.

Based on customer feedback, Patel said Tuxedo 11g’s approach as an “app server for non-Java applications” could be game-changing, for those looking for easier and less risky ways to reap benefits from rehosting. “We believe Tuxedo 11g could be disruptive because today we can provide customers a credible and complete solution, including automated tooling, management and best practices under one roof,” Patel said.

Inside Oracle’s Tuxedo 11g Upgrade
Tuxedo 11g extends the Oracle Fusion Middleware concept of a seamless “application grid” for tying together SOA and non-SOA resources. In one revealing statistic, Patel said Oracle Tuxedo 11g can support tens of thousands of domains in an “application grid” architecture, use automated tools to achieve rehosting and avoid the need to rewrite application code

Two key upgrades lay at the heart of Tuxedo 11g’s value proposition:

  1. Oracle Tuxedo Application Runtime 11g for CICS and Batch and
  2. Oracle Tuxedo Application Rehosting Workbench 11g

Let’s take a quick under-the-cover tour of both technologies:
 
Oracle Tuxedo Application Runtime 11g for CICS and Batch provides a CICS API emulation and Batch environment that exploits the full range of Oracle Tuxedo's capabilities.

The re-hosted applications run on Tuxedo in a multi-node, grid environment with centralized production control. Further, the integration of CICS application services to others throughout the enterprise will benefits from the open and SOA-enabled framework. Other features include:

  • CICS Application Runtime that can run IBM CICS applications unchanged in an application grid, which enables the distribution of large workloads across multiple processors and nodes. This simplifies CICS administration and can scale to over 100,000 users and over 50,000 transactions per second.
  • 3270 Terminal Server, which protects business users from change through support for tn3270 terminal emulation.
  • Distributed CICS Resource Management that can simplify deployment and administration by allowing customers to run CICS regions in a distributed configuration;
  • A Batch Application Runtime, which provides robust IBM JES-like job management that enables local or remote job submissions. In addition, distributed batch initiators can enable parallelization of jobs and support fail-over, shortening the batch window and helping to meet stringent SLAs; and a
  • Batch Execution Environment to help to run IBM batch unchanged and also supports JCL functionality and all common batch utilities.


The Oracle Tuxedo Application Rehosting Workbench 11g provides a set of automated migration tools integrated around a central repository.

These highly automated tools, based on what Patel told IDN are a ‘well-documented best practices and patterns’ provide high precision which results in very low error rates and the ability to handle large applications. This enables less expensive, low-risk migration projects. Key workbench capabilities include:

  •  Workbench Repository and Cataloguer, which ensures integrity of the migrated application assets through full dependency checking. The Cataloguer generates and maintains all relevant meta-data on source and target components.
  •  File Migrator, to support reliable migration of datasets and flat files to an ISAM or Oracle Database 11g. This is done through the automated migration utilities for data unloading, reloading and validation. It also generates logical access functions to shield developers from data repository changes.
  •  DB2 Migrator: Similar to the ‘File Migrator,” this tool automates the migration of DB2 schema and data to Oracle Database 11g.
  •  COBOL Migrator to support migration of IBM mainframe COBOL assets (OLTP and Batch) to open systems. It adapts programs for compiler dialects and data access variations.
  •  JCL Migrator to support migration of IBM JCL jobs to a Tuxedo ART environment, maintaining the flow and characteristics of batch jobs.


Other Oracle Tuxedo 11g Upgrades
Also part of Tuxedo 11g are other features to support on-going lifecycle support of rehosted Tuxedo resources, to improve monitoring, management and expansion of rehosting work product to new SOA-based updates or integrations.

Among these other Tuxedo 11g features are:

  • Real-time monitoring tools and a Web 2.0- based console. The interactive console enables capacity planning and quick problem resolution.
  • Oracle Tuxedo JCA Adapter 11g, to enable integration with JCA-compliant application servers.
  • Updated SALT 11g (Service Architecture Leveraging Tuxedo), which brings SCA capabilities to Tuxedo through the SCA programming model for mission-critical web services. SALT 11g also delivers WS-TX support, which enables mainframe-caliber transactional integrity across Web services.
  • Oracle Tuxedo System and Application Monitor (TSAM) 11g, which offers a new Web 2.0-based monitoring capability which uses an interactive console approach for faster problem resolution and root cause analysis.

 
“The upgrades to Tuxedo 11g offers a common platform and open architecture to provide customers cost-effective access to the mainframe data, logic and applications,” Patel said, “and with the automation and simplicity they need.”


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