DB2/400 to UDB on Windows

techmgr

Member
Our company has decided to migrate off of the iSeries platform to an x86 complex running UDB 9.1. My question is what is the best way to move the data in our current 8.11SP1 system from DB2/400 to UDB 9.1 for Windows?

Thank you in advance.
 
Since you are using E1, then the solution lies within E1.

- Create your database with appropriate security and permissions on UDB.
- Create a data source in E1 to point to your new database.
- Use R98403 running LOCAL on a fat client to copy all the tables and data from a data source on the AS/400 to the UDB database.
- Repeat the above for each data source you are moving over (Business Data, Control Tables, System, Data Dictionary, PD, PY, DV, etc.).

Yes, it will take a really long time, but I don't see any other way unless somebody knows of a data migration tool.
 
I will echo Ken's advice. The E1 runtime is a middleware platform in its own right and has all the tools you need for your planned conversion.

There are certainly tools that could be used to accomplish this data migration outside of E1. They would probably be faster but my position is that cross-platform/db copies done in E1 are "supported" while copies done outside E1 are not. That being said I have done a number of db/platform migrations and have never needed to log a support call with Oracle. As long as the source and destination are supported DB's for your tools release it should just work.

Specifically for iSeries/UDB to Windows UDB I did investigate using DB2 connect to federate the UDB/400 and UDB for Windows databases to allow for cross-platform udb to udb data copies but was able to convince the site to use the E1 tools.

To reduce the amount of time a data migration like this takes to execute I create multiple versions of the R98403 UBE. I will use 50 or more versions with the first N versions being assigned 1 table each from a list of the top N tables by record count. These versions are then run in parallel across multiple fat clients.

Each instance of R98403 takes little local resources. The bottleneck is then just the network connections between the iSeries, Fat Clients and Windows server.

If you benchmark the copy a few times ahead of your production cutover you can gauge how many versions you will need to execute the copy during a cutover weekend.
 
I think you are missing the most important points of migrating from the iSeries to Wintel.

Ensure you have increased your budget dramatically. Also ensure that you have reduced your expected ROI.

Also scan the job postings for additional help to maintain the system. In this current economy your transition to a more resource intensive system is greatly appreciated.
 
Ok, here we go, each time a platform migration question comes up we get FUD from the peanut gallery ;-)

For the record I love the iSeries. It is a great platform. That being said, bags of "saved money" and increased ROI do not fall out of the sky when you buy one.

Any platform can be used to run an efficient and reliable E1 environment or to run a slow and unreliable E1 environment.

Platform is an organizational choice that is influenced by many factors. I have done a number of AS/400-to-something-else conversions and in each case there were clear reasons to migrate. Acquisition by a non-iSeries company, consolidation of systems to another platform are only some of the valid reasons people migrate.

Anyway, can we avoid a religious discussion this time around and focus on the OP's questions about the task he has at hand?
 
Sorry, you are correct. We should limit this to technical issues. We are experiencing a current "fit the facts to justify the decision" situation. And have seen this several times in the past 20 years. That is what prompted the post. We should leave this up to IBM and Oracle and SAP to argue.
 
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