Mainframe Access Data Connect Server

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 region 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:

  1. Start an Enterprise Developer command prompt.
  2. Execute the following command at the command prompt: 
    sccfx

    This starts the Server Access Configuration dialog box.

  3. Configure a node as follows:
    1. Click the Node tab and then click Add.
    2. 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.
    3. On the Node tab, click Edit next to the node you have just defined.
    4. 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
  4. Data Connect works as part of Source Connect so you must add an appropriate configuration for Source Connect:
    1. Click the Source Connect tab.
    2. Click Add.
    3. 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.

  5. After configuring Data Connect, start the mfdaemon service:
    1. Click the MFDaemon tab.
    2. 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.
    3. Start the enterprise server instance using the cas command.
    4. Also start the MFDAEMON from the command prompt.

Configure the region

Finally, you need to enable your Enterprise Server region 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.

Parent topic: Using Mainframe Access