Effective: December 9, 2012
Revised:
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Internet (or TCP/IP) FTP can be used over the IBM/SNA portion of FIRN2's network. This chapter gives instructions on using FTP to exchange FASTER files with NWRDC, but you can also visit the Northwest Regional Data Center website for further information Using FTP to post requests or responses to the System is a two-step process. First, you transmit the file of requests or responses to NWRDC using FTP. Then, again using FTP, you submit the file of JCL commands that actually posts your requests or responses to the System. There may also be a third step if you need to retrieve a file of rejected records from NWRDC (print reports will still be routed according to your existing /*ROUTE PRINT statements). Using FTP to retrieve requests or responses from the System is also a two-step process. This time you first submit the file of JCL commands that retrieves your request or response files from your FASTER mailbox. Then you use FTP to transmit these files from NWRDC to your local site. Again, print reports will continue to be routed according to the /*ROUTE PRINT statements contained in your JCL. The rest of this chapter will show you how to use FTP to exchange records with NWRDC. For those institutions that also wish to use FTP to retrieve their edit report files (instead of using the existing /*ROUTE PRINT statements), instructions on how to do this will also be provided. In modifying your JCL, feel free to consult with the FASTER Technical Contact. A. Using FTP to Send Files to NWRDC To send a file of FASTER records to NWRDC using FTP, you first have to have the file you want to send on the same computing system as your copy of FTP. This computing system must, of course, be connected to the Internet. When you are ready to send a file of FASTER records (transmission of JCL streams is handled differently, as will be shown, below), you first bring up your copy of FTP and use it to log in to NWRDC using your regular FASTER userid and password. Use either of the following host names or Internet addresses to connect to NWRDC:
Before using the FTP put command to transmit the file to NWRDC, though, you must first initialize your data transmission environment. 1. If a file with the same name as the one you want to send to NWRDC already exists at NWRDC, you must delete that file. If your version of FTP does not have this capability, you will have to include a step in your JCL to do so. 2. You must now define the characteristics of the file you are going to send to NWRDC. You do this by issuing the following FTP quote commands (using the quote command tells FTP to ignore the parameters to the right of the word "quote" and pass them directly to the copy of FTP running at NWRDC): a. QUOTE SITE LRECL=1020 b. QUOTE SITE BLOCKSIZE=27540 c. QUOTE SITE CYLINDERS d. QUOTE SITE PRIMARY=5 e. QUOTE SITE SECONDARY=1 f. QUOTE SITE STORCLASS=SCFNSTD This tells NWRDC to allocate space for a file of fixed-length records 1,020 bytes in length, with a block size of 27,540 bytes per block. Space is to be allocated in terms of cylinders, with a primary quantity of 5 cylinders and a secondary quantity of 1 cylinder. The final quote command tells NWRDC to store this file on OADS's disk packs under NWRDC's Storage Management System. Note that, while all the above commands are shown in upper case, lower case characters also can be used. 3. Once you've issued the last of your quote commands, you then use your FTP to put your file onto NWRDC. With some copies of FTP, you use an actual put command. Others let you use a mouse to click on a Copy command box. Use the method provided by your copy of FTP. In general, the put command has the following format: put local-file-name remote-file-name For example, to send a local file on your system named TEST.XXX to a file at NWRDC named FN.DX01.RESPONSE.ONTO.SYSTEM, you would issue the following put command: put TEST.XXX 'FN.DX01.RESPONSE.ONTO.SYSTEM' Note that a single space separates the two file names, and that the name of the NWRDC file is enclosed in quotes. Always enclose NWRDC file names in quotes (if you don't, NWRDC will automatically prefix your file name with your userid). 4. You may name your local copies of FASTER files according to your local operating procedures. The NWRDC names of the files you send to NWRDC, however, should be named as follows:
Where DSNPRFX is:
all based on your FASTER userid. For example, Alachua School District (FASTER userid FNDX01 would have a DSNPRFX of: FN.DX01; thus, the name of the file of request records they would put to NWRDC would be: FN.DX01.REQUESTS.ONTO.SYSTEM Note that, actually, only the DSNPRFX in the above naming convention is absolutely mandatory. If you wish to modify your existing JCL and have used different names for the request/response files used as input to programs SRTS01/SRTS03, you may use those names instead. 5. The quote commands in step 2, above, establishes a primary quantity of 5 cylinders and a secondary quantity of 1 cylinder. This reserves up to 20 cylinders of space for the file transmitted, and not one single byte more than 20 cylinders--IBM systems are unforgiving when it comes to space calculations. In these computations, maximum reserved space is equal to your primary allocation plus fifteen (15) times your secondary allocation. In the above example, then, maximum space equals 5 cylinders plus 15 times 1 cylinder, which is 5 plus 15, or 20 cylinders. In quote command "c," in step 2, above, you could have replaced the word "CYLINDERS" with the work "TRACKS." This would result in a different total space calculation, since there are 15 tracks on a single cylinder. Changing your space allocation from cylinders to tracks reduces your allocation by a factor of 15. How much space you need to reserve depends on the size of the file you are sending. Using the above record length (1,020) and blocking factor (27,540), exactly fifty-four (54) 1,020-byte FASTER records will fit on a single track (which means that 810 records will fit on a single cylinder). Use this information in setting the parameters in your quote statements. For example, if you had 800 transcripts to send, and each transcript had an average of 75 FASTER records (of 1,020 bytes, each), you would need space for a total of 60,000 FASTER records (that is, 800 x 75). Given that 810 FASTER records fit on a single cylinder, you would need to reserve space for a total allocation of 75 cylinders (60,000 divided by 810, and rounded up). A primary allocation of 60 cylinders and a secondary allocation of 1 cylinder will produce a total allocation of 75 cylinders (that is, 60 + (1 * 15), or 60 +15). Note that the above example leaves no room for error. You would have to be certain that you had exactly 60,000 FASTER records in your file. If you aren't exactly certain of the size of your file, leave yourself some room by increasing your secondary allocation. Thus, in the above example, if I thought that my file contained about 60,000 FASTER records, I could use a primary allocation of 60 cylinders with a secondary allocation of 2 cylinders. This would give me an extra 15 cylinders of "wiggle room," a leeway of 12,000 FASTER records (20%). When making space calculations, take these factors into consideration. 6. Another note on the quote commands in step 2, above: with your copy of FTP, you might be able to combine these 6 commands into a single command. In doing so, you would probably want to make use of the following command abbreviations:
quote site lr=1020 blk=27540 cy pri=5 sec=1 stor=scfnstd Each parameter is separated from the next parameter by a single space (no spaces separate parameters and parameter values; for example, the string "lr=1020" contains no spaces, neither before nor after the equal sign). Note also that, with your copy of FTP, you may not have to enter the word "QUOTE." In the interactive copy of FTP that FIRN2 uses, there is simply a sub-menu item that says: "Send Quoted Command to Remote..." Clicking on this selection brings up a box entitled: "Quoted Command." Into this box, I would type the above quote command, leaving out the word "quote." Even with a batch version of FTP, you may also be able to issue the SITE command without preceding it with the word QUOTE. Experiment with your version of FTP to see which procedure is best for you. B. Tailoring JCL Templates for Your Use In appx L you will find sample JCL text files for the primary FASTER jobs. You can tailor these files for your use by replacing the characters 'zzzz' with the last four characters of your FASTER User ID. For example, Alachua county would change 'FN.zzzz.REQUESTS.ONTO.EDITRPT' to 'FN.DX01.REQUESTS.ONTO.EDITRPT'. C. Submitting the JCL to Post Records to the System Now that you have your modified JCL streams, you are ready to use FTP to submit a JCL stream to NWRDC to execute and post the records in the file you sent to NWRDC in section A, above. Submitting JCL to NWRDC using FTP follows the same pattern as sending files to NWRDC: 1. Bring up your copy of FTP and use it to log in to NWRDC using your regular FASTER userid and password. 2. Using FTP, issue the following "Quote" command: quote site filetype=jes 3. Immediately after issuing this quote command, send your file of JCL statements to NWRDC to a "file" whose name is "jes." This results in the submission of your JCL to the NWRDC job queue. For example, the following put command submits your local requests-posting JCL file ("reqpost.jcl") for execution at NWRDC: put reqpost.jcl jes Note that jes does not have to be surrounded by quotes in this put command. Thus, to post a file of request records to the System, you would follow the procedure in section A, above, to put your file of request records to NWRDC. Then you would use the procedure just outlined to submit the JCL to NWRDC to post these records to the System. Upon receiving the edit report routed back to your printer (via the /*ROUTE PRINT statement in your JCL), you would know whether or not you needed to use FTP to get a file of error records back from NWRDC. You would follow the same procedure to post a file of response records to the System. D. Submitting the JCL to Extract Records from the System You submit JCL to extract records in the same way that you submitted the JCL to post records (see section C, above). Once these jobs run, and you get back the job output, you can then use FTP to get the files created by these jobs back from NWRDC. The general format for the FTP get command is: get remote-file local-file A single space separates the get command from the remote file name, and a single space separates the remote file name from the local file name. The names of the remote files created by these JCL streams (unless you've altered them from the defaults generated by the System) are:
get 'FN.DX01.REQUESTS.ALLFROM.MAILBOX' todays.rqs E. Using FTP to Retrieve Printer Reports You can also use FTP to retrieve output reports and data files from NWRDC. For example, in JCL to post requests to the System (see Appendix L, Send Requests) your output edit report is written to a file on NWRDC named DSNPRFX.REQUESTS.EDIT.REPORT. (This is a file of 133-byte records, with the first byte being a standard IBM printer carriage control character.) You can download this file from NWRDC to your own site using FTP.
Alternatively, you can replace the output file definition in the JCL
//EDITRPT DD DSN=DSNPRFX.REQUESTS.EDIT.REPORT, With this line: //EDITRPT DD SYSOUT=A This causes the report to be routed to users based on /*ROUTE PRINT statements in the JCL. These route statements also work with a printer that has its own Internet address. If you want to route a printer report to an Internet printer, however, you must first contact the systems staff at NWRDC and have them assign your printer an LU name (which is derived from your printer's Internet address). Once they've put this LU name and Internet address in their tables you can route printouts to that printer as you would to any existing NWRDC remote printer. F. Automated Processing Using FTP The processes outlined in the preceding sections of this chapter involve a lot of manual intervention. This is especially true when retrieving records from FASTER mailboxes. A job is submitted to NWRDC, the user waits to receive a printer report and, upon receipt, uses FTP to get a file of records from NWRDC. If your institution commonly uses fully automated procedures, this methodology will not fit well in your current operational scheme. It is, though, possible to automate this entire process. If your local machine is has an Internet connection, you can do each of the above processes as single job streams. For example, to post a file of request records, you could submit JCL to NWRDC to: 1. Run NWRDC's copy of FTP to log in to your local computer and get a file of your requests directly from your computer. 2. Upon the successful completion of step 1, the JCL then would run program SRTS01, posting your requests to the System and creating files FN.CX05.EDIT.REPORT and FN.CX05.REQUESTS.ONTO.SYSERRS. 3. Based on condition codes, the JCL would then use FTP to put both of the files created in step B onto your local server (if edit errors were detected), or put only the edit report to your local server (if no errors were detected). In this way, you would have a lot less manual intervention. NWRDC also has a job scheduling package that would allow for any of the above jobs to be run on a scheduled basis. Manual intervention could be kept to a minimum. You must, though, be confident in your local userid/password procedure and other "firewall" software to automate processing in this way. The crux of the matter is that you are allowing a remote computer to a) log in to your system, b) retrieve a data file, and c) create data files on your system. If you have such confidence in your own security system, you may wish to automate the entire FASTER file exchange process using FTP. If you want to do this, please contact technical staff for assistance in building the new JCL streams. G. Data Encryption FIRN provides secure data transmission to all Florida educational institutions through their infrastructure. FIRN deploys Nokia data encryption equipment to facilitate and create Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology within the existing TCP/IP network to guarantee private and secured data communications. VPN technologies allow FIRN to offer additional security for the data that traverses FIRN's backbone by encrypting all traffic between end-user sites. VPN technologies provide the medium to use the public Internet backbone as an appropriate channel for private data communications between the public school districts, state colleges and educational regional data centers in Florida and enables FIRN clients to pass encrypted data over the FIRN TCP/IP backbone. |