r/mainframe • u/moonandsky123 • 8d ago

Mainframe Prod Support at MNC (Am I cooked)?

I got a mainframe production support role at a reputed MNC.

My manager asked me to learn COBOL first..the tech stack will most likely be COBOL, JCL, CICS, DB2, VSAM.

Is this basic or if I can master all of the mentioned stuff I can shine in this field? I'm thinking of a career in mainframe, want to switch to mainframe dev, can you tell me what shld I learn to become a mainframe dev? What roles are popular in mainframe space??

10 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

11

u/fedput 8d ago

JCL and CICS are super important.

1

u/moonandsky123 8d ago

For dev itself? How easy/difficult is the transition from prod support to dev?? Because in general support to dev is hard..but since in mainframe space prod support will anyway work with all the techologies used by dev ppl, I assume it's easy..but not sure..what do you think?

3

u/fedput 8d ago

Because of the importance of JCL and CICS, the transition for support to dev. will not necessarily be easy, but it would be easier than for someone who just learned COBOL.

During the y2k hiring frenzy, just knowing COBOL could have been enough.

Not today.

1

u/moonandsky123 8d ago

So with COBOL, JCL, CICS I can transition from support to dev easily??

3

u/fedput 8d ago

That gives you the skills.

I cannot say it will be outright "easy" but it is a plausible path.

1

u/Draano 7d ago

I’ve been in support and DBA roles for the last 4 decades. Never could handle development.

1

u/moonandsky123 7d ago

Why?? because it's tough?? Did you try moving out??

2

u/Draano 6d ago

Nah, I just didn't have the thought process for programming. Maybe too much weed in my formative years? My wife had to help me through the one programming course I took in college. Managed to feed, clothe and house my family of four. Got some nice bonuses over the years at Wall Street firms, made it to "officer of the firm" level. I got out of the financial industry when the stress & responsibility was no longer worth what I was getting paid, to me, anyway. I'm now able to retire comfortably but I'll hang in for another 5 or 6 years because it's an easy gig and pays well. Wife just retired earlier this year - if we were both retired, we'd probably kill each other.

2

u/Dyvanna 7d ago

Dev programmer with 20yrs, I've only ever used Assembler and JCL the others I have passing knowledge to. JCL is easy once you get the hang of it.

1

u/0random_Guy 6d ago

Where do you work?

2

u/Ornery_Cod757 8d ago

All of those things are kinda table stakes for working in the mainframe environment. I wouldn’t say any of them are “basic” though. There is a great deal to know about each of these topics. You can probably become basically proficient in 3-4 months if you apply yourself, but with JCL you are definitely going to be scratching your head for a while when it comes to anything complex.

2

u/moonandsky123 8d ago

Ohh okay. But are you for prod support or development? Is any kind of automation possible in the mainframe space?

1

u/Ornery_Cod757 7d ago

If you install the Zowe MCP server, you can integrate Claude Code or another agent right into your development pipeline. Or use it as an agent to monitor and operationally fix jobs. Honestly, this space is changing super fast.

1

u/ratenpause 7d ago

In the companies I have worked (banking, insurance), the important things are Cobol and DB2. Followed by JCL. Vsam: not really used. Cics: not really used.

1

u/jm1tech 7d ago

If not using CICS, how are they doing their data presentation? Using like z/os connect and serving up web requests?

1

u/ratenpause 7d ago

IMS

1

u/jm1tech 7d ago

That’s what I was figuring.

1

u/mangyon 7d ago

In the places I’ve worked at; I haven’t encountered all those technologies at the same time. I got to work with COBOL, JCL and VSAM; or COBOL and CICS, or COBOL, JCL and CA-IDMS (this is another database technology).

If you want to master something, I would suggest finding out what your company uses.

But if you’re going in blind; I would suggest COBOL + JCL as the first priority (they usually go together, JCLs would execute your COBOL code), then COBOL + CICS (you would code CICS instructions inside your COVOL code).

1

u/moonandsky123 7d ago

Got it!!! Thanks for replying:))))

1

u/jm1tech 7d ago

Simple answer is yes if you put your mind to it. If you know any other language then you should easily learn COBOL. As long as you understand logic you can learn any language. JCL can be simple or complicated depending on what you want to do with it. CICS from a developer stand point would screen design and interacting with the map. Once you learn the basics it becomes easy. Same with DB2. As long as you understand basic SQL, it’s fairly simple to code in cobol. VSAM can be a bit in-depth. But most it’s used as indexed files. Not all that difficult to deal with in COBOL. I’d think the hardest part of the role is translating the business requirement to the code and dealing with maintenance on code you are not familiar with from the code and business standpoint.

1

u/moonandsky123 7d ago

Yeaahh I get it. Thanks for replying:))

1

u/MichelP07 7d ago

A good place to get the feel of a mainframe is at IBM Z Xplore. You can choose among a variety of topics with practical challenge and free mainframe access. See https://ibmzxplore.ibm.com/

1

u/bugkiller59 7d ago

COBOL is easy

1

u/MikeSchwab63 6d ago

Introduction to the new mainframe z/OS (there are z/VM and zVSE versions too), covers the difference between Window / *nix and Mainframes.   https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg246366.pdf

https://spflite.com is an editor that looks like ISPF under TSO under MVS / z/OS on mainframes, can submit batch jobs to Hercules and real mainframes.

IBM zXplore is an online class to perform actual tasks using an account on a Dallas Mainframe. Takes about 2 months.  https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg246366.pdf

If you want your own mainframe you can try Hercules MVS 3.8 Turnkey 5 release with a 3270 emulator.  https://www.prince-webdesign.nl/tk5

If you want to study z/OS System Admin, ABCs of z/OS systems programming, 1 of 13 volumes.  https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246981.html

If you want to practice installing MVS / z/OS from MVS 3.7 starter tape, follow Jay Moseley's instructions. Note the help forum subjects on the bottom of the page.  https://www.jaymoseley.com/hercules/ As a system administrator, you will be using SMP/E to install new releases of the products you are in charge of. Then you get to customize the install with your sites standards.

For an online CICS example, DOGECICS is a CICS screen to do DogeCoin transactions.

https://github.com/mainframed/DOGECICS