Informatica PowerExchange™ for VSAM

Unlock Complex Data. On Demand.

Today’s IT organizations face growing demand for timely access to critical operational data stored in VSAM files on IBM zSeries
mainframes. New business initiatives, such as improving customer service, meeting governance and compliance requirements,
consolidating systems, and optimizing integration processes, challenge IT to find an efficient, cost-effective way to leverage data
in “right time” without impacting existing applications. Until now, two common approaches have been COBOL-based hand-coded
programs that extract and process bulk data and change-capture solutions that rely on application logic or file comparison
techniques. Informatica PowerExchange™ for VSAM offers IT organizations noninvasive software based on a service-oriented
architecture featuring direct, scalable access to bulk or change-only data in real time or on a scheduled basis without requiring
application programming. It removes implementation complexity, reduces overall costs, and allows IT to extend the value of
existing investments in legacy applications.

Figure 1: PowerExchange provides on-demand access to complex data, including bidirectional VSAM data,
for a wide range of data integration and business intelligence initiatives
Unlock Complex Data Benefits
• Unlock VSAM data easily and seamlessly for broader use by processes or systems
• Employ visual tools to eliminate hand coding and increase productivity
• Lower existing MIPS usage by offloading work to cheaper processors
• Enforce user- and data-level security requirements for safe operation and rapid deployment
• Ease debugging with dynamic design and testing capabilities
• Use “push” or “pull” execution models to ensure appropriate resource control
• Improve leverage of existing assets through support for multiple file formats
• Meet comprehensive solution needs with seamless design and run-time integration with Informatica PowerCenter®,
EAI, and other data integration technologies

Data On Demand Benefits

• Deliver VSAM data on demand through flexible Batch, Change, and Real-time options
• Deploy a noninvasive architecture that uses VSAM exit points for change capture
• Maximize flexibility with support for CICS and native (batch) VSAM
• Ensure that only desired, committed data is made available
• Leverage transactional control information to automate downstream integration
• Employ a capture-once, deliver-many model for efficient resource use
• Seamlessly handle errors through robust recovery/restart capabilities
• Condense all changes to common records into an end representation to minimize overall processing

Unlock The Benefits of Complex Data With Informatica PowerExchange

Unlock VSAM data easily and seamlessly for broader use by processes or systems.
PowerExchange provides direct, high-performance, bidirectional access to CICS or batch-based VSAM data stored on the IBM
zSeries mainframe. Direct access occurs through an optimized listener-based architecture that uses SQL as the underlying
execution language. By allowing developers to use SQL, a more prevalent skill in IT, VSAM data is unlocked for broader use
across IT initiatives.

Employ visual tools to eliminate hand coding and increase productivity.

Navigator, a visual design client, supports all aspects of PowerExchange design, deploy, recovery, and maintenance. This
approach saves time in each phase and enables rapid change of existing solutions when business needs require it.

For nonrelational PowerExchange options such as the VSAM option, the data map is a key architectural concept. A data map
provides the intelligence to map between SQL statements and native calls to underlying data structures. Each VSAM data map
begins with the import of a COBOL or PL/1 copybook. Metadata can be input by hand if required. Once imported, Navigator
automatically provides a row- and column-based data format that can be edited or simply used to access VSAM data using SQL.
This design-once, access-many approach inherently eliminates hand coding and improves overall productivity.
 Figure 2: PowerExchange Navigator import of an existing copybook.

Data maps developed with Navigator also provide the ability to align fields, convert dates, and filter and enhance data at the
point of receipt. This capability improves data accuracy and can reduce data volumes and errors for downstream consumers.

Figure 3: PowerExchange Navigator converting a VSAM date field.

Lower existing MIPS usage by offloading work to cheaper processors.

PowerExchange includes configuration options that push data conversion processing off the mainframe to systems based on
UNIX, Windows, or Linux, saving MIPS usage and lowering costs. This feature provides flexibility in deployment and potential
balancing of resources to appropriate systems.
Enforce user and data-level security for safe operation and rapid deployment.
PowerExchange supplies security at both the user authentication and data stream levels to ensure safe operation and rapid
deployment. When PowerExchange is used in conjunction with Informatica PowerCenter or a third-party product, the security
model is seamless across products.

At the user authentication level, PowerExchange supports granular, user-level security through a “hierarchy of action” scheme
(read, write, update, create, and so on). This scheme is supported by integration with mainframe security packages including
RACF, ACF/2, and Top Secret and is enforced at design time and run time.

If PowerExchange is used in conjunction with Informatica PowerCenter or a third-party product, security is enforced on a pass-
through basis where logon/authentication dialogs prompt for the appropriate detail for each specific action. This capability
ensures seamless, end-to-end security.

At the data stream level, PowerExchange provides the ability to encrypt a point-to-point data connection using RSA key-based
encryption capabilities. This feature ensures security of data while in transit for more stringent environmental security
requirements.

By supplying multilevel, comprehensive security capabilities, PowerExchange ensures that VSAM data is securely available to
the right people, processes, or systems with minimal risk.

Ease debugging with dynamic design and testing capabilities.

With the Navigator interface, design is greatly simplified through the ability to monitor and receive live, flowing data after making
configuration changes. This capability, called “row testing,” is enabled for all product options (Batch, Change, and Real time). It
allows a solution designer to see data as it is requested or captured from the source to ensure that metadata alignment is
accurate and that change capture, if deployed, is functioning correctly.

Figure 4: Dynamic Row Sampling Test

Use “push” or “pull” execution models to ensure appropriate resource control.
PowerExchange can be configured to push data to a supported database, file, or message queue or act as a client in a data pull
scenario. This flexibility ensures that the appropriate resource control is placed in the right hands. VSAM data owners can
maintain control of the execution by initiating the process themselves. When third-party tools drive data acquisition,
PowerExchange can be powered by SQL from another system.

Improve leverage of existing assets through support for multiple file formats.
CICS or batch-based mainframe applications were originally designed using a variety of file formats and VSAM technologies.
PowerExchange supports a broad range of formats to ensure that all applications in the enterprise are supported in the same
architecture. Formats include KSDS, ESDS (“batch” only), and RRDS (fixed and variable). QSAM, CDG, PDS members, and
sequential file formats are also supported.

Meet comprehensive solution needs with seamless design and run-time integration
with Informatica PowerCenter, EAI, and other data integration technologies.
PowerExchange can operate as a standalone product or combine seamlessly with third-party products. For example,
PowerExchange can push data directly to an EAI-based message queue, or a data integration product can pull data through a
SQL request. This inherent flexibility is possible through a service-oriented architecture, an intrinsic part of the Informatica UDS
architecture.

End users enjoy additional design and run-time advantages

when using PowerExchange for VSAM with Informatica
PowerCenter.

• Design Time–Solution design is streamlined through

simplified source import, mapping, and session design.
• Run Time–PowerCenter’s data server uses optimized,
parallel read/write APIs for maximum performance. Also, for
VSAM files that contain multiple record types, only a single
pass is required to source these more complex structures.

Figure 5: PowerCenter Designer leverages PowerExchange design time integration.

Data On Demand Benefits

Deliver VSAM data on demand through flexible Batch, Change, and Real-time
options.
In a single architecture, PowerExchange provides three product options—Batch, Change, and Real time—that can be configured
to meet any on-demand VSAM data requirement.

Batch Option
The Batch option furnishes direct access to bulk VSAM data. Powered by VSAM data maps, SQL statements are translated
into native access calls that result in a stream of data for a calling program such as Informatica PowerCenter; and that data
can also be delivered directly to another system, message queue, database, or file. The incoming SQL statement can filter
the data to return smaller data sets as well as perform write operations back to the VSAM files themselves on a key-driven
basis.

Change Option
The Change option provides direct access to change-only data on a scheduled basis. Additional, patented components of
the PowerExchange architecture are configured to perform the change-capture function. Based on the type of VSAM
application (CICS or batch), different exit-based approaches allow for noninvasive change capture. The Change Option also
includes restart/recovery, performance tuning, and configuration optimization options.

Real-time Option
The Real-time option extends the value of capturing change-only data by including the capability to deliver that data in near
real time to a message queue, a database, or a calling program. This option employs the same change-capture facility of
the Change option but leverages additional architecture components to enable real-time delivery. The Real-time option also
features restart/recovery, performance tuning, and configuration optimization options.

Deploy a noninvasive architecture that uses VSAM exit points for change capture.
The PowerExchange architecture is delivered as a set of components that all work together to perform all aspects of the change-
capture, management, and recovery process.

Figure 6: VSAM CDC architecture used by Change and Real-time options.

• Capture Agent–The Capture Agent is a data platform–specific module that leverages transactional exit points or interfaces
to perform the change-capture function. It leverages high-speed mainframe HiperSpace as the location for writing changed
data.
− CICS VSAM Capture Agent–For CICS VSAM, the Capture Agent consists of four global user exits and one task exit
that leverage standard CICS facilities for installation and execution without requiring changes to CICS or to existing
applications. These exits monitor CICS processing states to detect transaction changes and capture committed
records for the change stream. In general, processing is minimally impacted through the nonintrusive operation.
− Native VSAM (Batch) Capture Agent–For native VSAM (batch), the Capture Agent can be deployed as part of an
individual batch job or on a system-wide basis. Each strategy detects a file's open and close states by various
interacting applications to simulate a “unit of work.”
• Collector Agent–The Collector Agent is a generic architecture module that manages the distribution, persistence, or
condensing of changed, committed transactions. It also manages “change stream” recovery and synchronization for
subscribing applications. To ensure complete synchronization, only committed transactions based on units of work in the
source system are available on the change stream.
• PowerExchange Listener–The PowerExchange Listener is a generic architecture module that coordinates activities across
modules, initiates requests, or processes requests from third-party applications. The Listener also processes requests for
metadata during the design. As its name implies, the PowerExchange Listener waits on a TCP/IP port to initiate processing.

Maximize flexibility with support for CICS and native (batch) VSAM.
PowerExchange provides a unique, patented CDC architecture that does not require changes to existing applications to
implement change capture. It can be deployed in both VSAM CICS and native (batch) VSAM environments using platform-
specific technologies for integrating with each transaction layer.

Ensure that only desired, committed data is made available.

Through the PowerExchange Navigator, solution developers use a visual environment to identify the specific data elements
(tables and columns, for example, from the SQL-based data representation) of interest for a data integration scenario. This
process is called “capture registration” and defines what change records will be available for consumption by downstream
applications.

Figure 7: Capture registration: Choosing the appropriate change-capture data elements.

Leverage transactional control information to automate downstream integration.
Along with the data, control information is captured and made available as part of each complete record. Control information can
be leveraged downstream by Informatica PowerCenter, EAI, and other data integration products to determine what to do with
each row of data. This capability provides a unique benefit when deploying an integrated solution between PowerExchange and
a data integration product.

Figure 8: PowerCenter update strategy transformation acting on PowerExchange control Information.

Employ a capture-once, deliver-many model for efficient resource use.

Once changes are written to the change stream, multiple applications can request different data elements based on their
business requirements. Each application can operate on its own schedule independent from others. Information is maintained in
the change stream to ensure data consistency and recoverability. This capture-once, deliver-many model reduces resource
consumption, network bandwidth, and impact to source systems.

Seamlessly handle errors through robust recovery/restart capabilities.

The PowerExchange architecture includes a sophisticated logging capability that facilitates seamless error recovery from a
connection, software, or hardware failure. A unique sequence number and time stamp are logged for each changed data record.
Recovery uses this logging infrastructure to ensure that all change-stream subscribers pick up where they left off when a session
is restarted.

Condense all changes to common records into an end representation to minimize

overall processing.
The Change option offers a way to condense a set of changed data transactions that can deliver operational efficiencies, lower
data volumes, and allow design flexibility. This option collapses all updates to common records into a single final representation
of the data. This capability reduces data volume and ensures that only the final, committed result of each record is made
available.
Why PowerExchange?
PowerExchange for VSAM is ideal for any organization seeking to use VSAM-based application data for broader business
benefit. It can significantly improve IT’s ability to fully use this critical resource to address new business initiatives while
dramatically improving current integration methods. It provides significant end-to-end cost savings and fits easily into existing IT
environments. PowerExchange for VSAM is a clear choice for organizations that need to unlock VSAM data to meet on-demand
business objectives.

Environmental Requirements
Navigator Client Requirements
• PowerExchange Navigator requires Windows PC

Networking Requirements
• A minimum of one TCP/IP port must be available for PowerExchange usage
• Port 2480 has been registered with IANA

System Requirements
• z/OS Version 1.1 and higher
• OS/390 Version 2.6 and higher
• CICS/TS V2.3.0, V2.2.0, V2.1.0, V1.3.0, V1.2.0, V1.1.0, and CICS/ESA V4.1.0
• TSO USERID user required for PowerExchange administration
• VSAM File Types—KSDS, ESDS (“batch” only), and RRDS (fixed and variable)
• QSAM, IAM file formats supported
• For CICS VSAM, files must beset to “RECOVERABLE”
• Paths over alternate index are supported
• VSAM limitations
− Records > 32660 bytes
− Spanned ESDS
− CI mode
− Multiple TCBs environments accessing same file
− Record level sharing (RLS)
− Any PATH defined over a cluster

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