Modern Mainframe Automation with Python
Key Points
- The speaker contrasts the traditional mainframe workflow—heavy reliance on multiple JCL scripts, manual edits, and long turnaround times—with modern development practices.
- By adopting familiar tools from college such as VS Code, YAML configuration files, and Python scripts, their team streamlined DB2 installation and customization.
- The Python‑driven automation reads the YAML, executes the necessary steps, and produces a fully provisioned DB2 instance, turning a previously cumbersome process into an efficient, repeatable pipeline.
- This approach demonstrates that new mainframe developers can leverage contemporary automation techniques without special training, dispelling myths about mainframe development being outdated or inaccessible.
Full Transcript
# Modern Mainframe Automation with Python **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq8GN96fBDA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq8GN96fBDA) **Duration:** 00:03:31 ## Summary - The speaker contrasts the traditional mainframe workflow—heavy reliance on multiple JCL scripts, manual edits, and long turnaround times—with modern development practices. - By adopting familiar tools from college such as VS Code, YAML configuration files, and Python scripts, their team streamlined DB2 installation and customization. - The Python‑driven automation reads the YAML, executes the necessary steps, and produces a fully provisioned DB2 instance, turning a previously cumbersome process into an efficient, repeatable pipeline. - This approach demonstrates that new mainframe developers can leverage contemporary automation techniques without special training, dispelling myths about mainframe development being outdated or inaccessible. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq8GN96fBDA&t=0s) **From JCL to Modern DevOps** - The speaker contrasts legacy JCL‑driven mainframe infrastructure builds with a contemporary workflow that uses VS Code, YAML, and Python to simplify configuration and deployment. ## Full Transcript
so last time Rosen and I talked to you
guys we talked about what it's like to
be a new main framer in this world
starting new career any fears
excitements all that good stuff we
talked a little bit about any myths and
kind of lore and about Z and
Mainframe but we want to take a little
bit more closer look at that let's talk
about the traditional way to get some
context first rosand yeah so in my world
or the traditional world to build
infrastructure we have JCL we have to
modify get changes to do kicks regions
we have JCL to do it db2 yes again more
JCL let's go a little bit more in this
example the JCL isn't one JCL it's a
bunch of JCL my configuration my rack F
all of the I have to do it right for
every single piece so yes modifying JCL
submitting modifying JCL 3 hours
everything's perfect one week yeah
that's more normal not the best way
that worked for a little bit it looked
for worked for some time rosn talked
about JCL running jobs and all of this
other stuff using tools that I didn't
really understand when I first got here
so I didn't worry about that instead I
used modern tooling that I learned in
college and still absolutely worked with
c and my work use tools like vs code
writing yaml files and most importantly
python python was huge when I when I
first started out here and still is
today so let's take a closer look at
what what I actually did what my team
and I did start with the yaml because
yaml is where it all
started this yaml has all the
configurations we need for to install
and customize our
db2 any changes we need to make any
updates we want to make to our system or
something our product owner asks us to
do it's easy to make that change you
just go in here make the change run it
through our Python scripts and our db2
is up and running again let's take a
look at these Python scripts because
that's pretty important and again all
this stuff was in VVS code something I
learned in college everyone's easy to
use so
python we have a series of scripts
written in Python that go through each
of the installation steps that are
needed to install this db2 and customize
it to what we want it to
be uh and it say eventually it will
become this fully automated process
where any anyone who uses our product
can send their yaml in run through the
steps pops out the
db2 this fully automated process was
easy it's easy to understand it's
efficient I can do it I I did this it
was exciting experience and not
something that I needed to do any kind
of special training on and any new
person coming into the main frame can do
something exactly like this so I hope
that this talk kind of spelled any
rumors or scary ideas you had about
being a new person coming into the zor I
graduated college less than a year ago
all the tools that I used in college the
automation I used all still applied here
in the real world in
Mainframe and how about the rest of us
we can use this too and take advantage
of all this great technology modern
tools modern
automation thanks for watching before
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