ITEM: D2679L

6000 filetransfer to 370 system - VSE/SP 2.1, CICS 1.7

Question:

My customer is transferring approx 27MB from mainframe to PC, and its taking
about 4 hours!  Looking for a way to speed this up, maybe by channel
attached 6000.  Would TCP/IP provide faster file transfer (ftp)?

Response:

Some things we talked about:  They are 4381-021, VSE/SP 2.1, CICS 1.7,
Customer mentioned that they thought file transfer was slow because of
CICS.  I am surprised at how slow it is, considering the 3174 that the
PC is attached to is local channel attached device.  (as a historical
example, I have seen 27MB pass over 3270 file transfer in about 2 hours,
on a remote 56Kb line, not even channel attached).  
The problem you may have though, is that the channel adapters
require TCP/IP on the host, which would require a later version of VSE
on the host, CICS on the host - big money to upgrade a machine that
they may drop in 6 mo to one year.  They are WAY down level on
software, 2 years ago the current level of VSE/SP was at 4.1, and CICS is
currently at about level 3.2.

Response:

Not sure channel attach will be the answer for them.  Our channel
adapters are 1) ESCON control unit adapter, which requires fiberoptic
channels, or 2) Block Multiplexer Channel Connection.  Neither of
these adapters support SNA protocols, so the customer would need
TCP/IP on the 4381.  But what TCP/IP product?  IBM sells Openconnect
TCP/IP for VSE, which includes Telnet client from VSE, and ftp client
and ftp server from VSE.  These are in fact SNA applications on
the VSE host, which then communicate SNA thru Openconnect
gateway software on the 6000.  This is all possible, put
token-ring card in 3174, lan attach 6000.  One stumbling block is 
that the Openconnect Software requires VSE to be at level VSE/ESA 1.3.
Another stumbling block, 4381-021 is not an ESA capable processor.
Their VSE is about 5 years backlevel.

You might still entertain SNA services/6000 and HCON for 3270 terminal
emulation and file transfer on the 6000, token-ring adapter in 3174,
token-ring attached 6000.  But I am not sure the VTAM they run with
VSE/SP 2.1 even supports token-ring devices downstream from 3174.
They will probably need a microcode/configuration upgrade on the 3174
as well.

Before making any commitment, your customer might find it valuable to 
spend $1500 or so and have a knowledgable 370 systems engineer out for
a day to help them plan strategy, and perhaps look into why file
transfer is so slow.  


        



Support Line: 6000 filetransfer to 370 system - VSE/SP 2.1, CICS 1.7 ITEM: D2679L

Dated: August 1993 Category: N/A

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