Many companies are moving away from mainframe systems and using large Unix systems instead. This, however, leaves a large gap in the traditional tape handling of the mainframe. This is where MM/UNIX can fit in.

MM/UNIX (and MM/PC) has a large number of tape handlers (an internal routine to handle a specific tape format or variation), and so is often used to provide an interface with traditional interchange tape formats. These tape handlers enable both reading and writing, often emulating some very old logical tape formats.

MM/UNIX can help with the replacement of mainframe tape handling on two accounts. Firstly it processes more logical backups and interchange formats than any other system, and so the tape format will never be an issue. Secondly by using the command line scripting capability, the whole product can be integrated into a complete production environment.

With scripting it is possible to initiate copies, to or from a tape drive, and to be informed of completion, or error conditions as they occur. Full logs are also generated. Features are being added to MM/UNIX to help generate systems that are largely ‘lights off’ in operation. At the same time, the product can be used with a simple user interface to do manual copies and conversions etc.

MM/UNIX contains a Record Reformatter module that will convert structured records between IBM type files (typically EBCDIC), and ASCII based Unix systems. This helps with any transition between mainframe and new open systems.

MM/UNIX operates on a Sun running Solaris 8 and has shown some significant performance gains over similar PC based MM/PC systems. As a useful side effect, although MM/UNIX may be purchased to replace the handling of Labelled, and Unlabelled tapes, the user can also access all other tape structures. With the addition of other tape drives, eg a DAT, or DLT, the Unix system can then read all media types, and structures. On the tape handling side, it more than replaces the mainframe features – as these are currently not supported.

MM/UNIX is an evolving product. It is the only product in the market place to handle variable length records and the usage requests we are getting on a daily basis are leading the product in a whole new direction from our MM/PC package.

If you want to discuss replacing your mainframe tape handling environment with a more capable, less expensive UNIX based system, please contact us and we’ll see how we can help you.

Visit the MM/UNIX product page.
Visit the MM/PC product page.