Mainframe Access Data Connect Server is one of Micro Focus's File Handler utilities for connecting to the mainframe.
Note: If you have used Mainframe Express before, note that there is a new version of Data Connect Server supplied with
Enterprise Developer. You need to use the new version to connect to the mainframe.
This topic provides instructions for how to properly configure Data Connect to access the mainframe and how to configure your
enterprise server instance in order to work with Data Connect.
Set up a connection to the mainframe
As a first step, you need to configure Data Connect to access the mainframe remotely from your machine. To do this:
- Start an
Enterprise Developer or an
Enterprise Test Server command prompt.
- Execute the following command at the command prompt:
sccfx
This starts the
Server Access Configuration dialog box.
- Configure a node as follows:
- Click the
Node tab and then click
Add.
- Follow the
Node Configuration wizard instructions and specify the following details:
- A name for the node, such as
MVS.
- A
Logical server name - the name of the mainframe machine you are connecting to.
- Click the first option to specify a
Name or IP address and a
Port number.
- On the
Node tab, click
Edit next to the node you have just defined.
- Click
Credentials and specify the following details:
- The user name and password that you use to connect to the mainframe.
- Check both
Use to authenticate against all resources and
Save to INI file.
This creates a
mfaclient.ini file in
c:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Micro Focus with contents similar to the following:
[SERVERNAME;NODENAME]
blank|_password=false
userid=SOMEUSER
password=SOMEPASSWORD
- Data Connect works as part of Source Connect so you must add an appropriate configuration for Source Connect:
- Click the
Source Connect tab.
- Click
Add.
- Specify a drive letter, a search criteria and specify the node that you just created.
You must specify a drive letter that is not already in use or will not be used on the machine for any other purposes.
- After configuring Data Connect, start the mfdaemon service:
- Click the
MFDaemon tab.
- Click
Start Daemon.
This starts the daemon. Check the details on the
MFDaemon tab to ensure that it shows the resources associated with the saved logon credentials. This must match the information that
is specified on the
Node tab. Ensure that the resources in this list exist.
Note: MFDaemon and MFDS on the machine must run with the same user credentials. This must not be the SYSTEM user.
- Start the enterprise server instance using the
cas command.
- Also start the MFDAEMON from the command prompt.
Configure the enterprise server instance
Finally, you need to enable your enterprise server instance to work with Data Connect. In order to do this, you need to exclusively
specify the following environment variables in the server's
Configuration Information section:
- MFASERV=ON
- MF_RCCF=KEEPJOB
- HOST_DISP=ON
- HOST_NEW=ON
See
Mainframe Access Environment Variables and
JCL-specific Environment Variables for more information on these variables.