Filebutler for z/OS as a file gateway to the Open World
Initial situation
The transport of z/OS datasets, especially VBS datasets, via FTP is a recurring problem in our daily work.
There is no standard possibility available on the market to read VBS datasets, to transfer them via FTP and to make them available again as VBS dataset on the target system. The transfer of VBS datasets becomes necessary, for example, when SMF data from mutually isolated systems are to be backed up decentrally at a common location via TCP/IP-based protocol espan> and made available again as VBS datasets when required.
The user is completely left to his own devices if the data transfer is also to be packed and encrypted.
Solution
Filebutler for z/OS, runs directly on the z/OS and can write VBS datasets directly by using BSAM calls.
Filebutler is a file transfer framework that allows fully automatic operation of file transfers. Fully automatic means, among other things, that restarts are automatically performed in the event of faulty transfers. Only when the transfer has detected a certain number of failures, an error message (SNMP, SMTP) is sent. Only in this case manual intervention is required. This procedure reduces the operation effort considerably. The service checks in regular intervals whether new files are available for transfer. For this purpose own transfer checkpoints are used. There is also a transfer log to keep track of the transferred files at any time. The various settings and checkpoints are managed via an integrated web interface.
Beside the fully automatic operation there is also the single transfer operation. Here the caller is responsible for everything (alerting, restart, logging, etc.) outside the transfer.
A picture is telling more than a thousand words…
Below are some concrete scenarios where Filebutler is used in actual customer projects.
The graphic describes a scenario in which Filebutler is used to regularly transfer VBS datasets from remote systems via TCP/IP and to store them on a file server for further use. From here, the datasets can be made available again as VBS datasets at any time using Filebutler.
What protocols does Filebutler support??
Filebutler supports the following protocols today:
- FTP
- FTP/s
- sFTP
- SMB V1, V2, V3
- SMTP
- POP, IMAP
- SVN (Subversion)
- Cloud Storage
Features on the z/OS platform
In addition to the standard features, we look here at the additional features of the z/OS platform.
- zAAP Enabled Workload
- native BSAM access für z/OS Dataset, E.g. VBS Dataset
- Dataset allocation by SMS parameters
- Monitor Service runs as STC
- z/OS Operator Command support
Weitere Einsatzmöglichkeiten finden sie in diesem Blog.
Der Filebutler ist eine getrennt lizensierbare Komponente des LARS Framework.
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