Setting the file. One moment.
Subchapter 72.11
references/mainframe-migration.mdMarkdown5 KBView on GitHub
Migrating from Db2 for z/OS is a replatform (different OS/endianness). You cannot restore a z/OS backup image to RDS for Db2. The process requires:
ADB2GEN extracts DDL for tables, indexes, views, triggers, check constraints, referential constraints, identity columns, sequences, and GRANT statements with high fidelity.
A Python script converts ADB2GEN output to RDS for Db2 compatible DDL:
python zos_to_luw_ddl_conversion.py <zos_ddl_file> <target_schema> <target_data_tablespace> <target_index_tablespace> <output_file>
# Example:
python zos_to_luw_ddl_conversion.py EMPLOYEE.DDL SCHEMA1 TS_DATA_8K TS_INDEX_8K EMPLOYEE.out| z/OS DDL feature | Action |
|---|---|
FOR SBCS DATA on CHAR/VARCHAR | Removed (not supported in RDS) |
WITHOUT TIME ZONE on TIMESTAMP | Removed |
VOLATILE / NOT VOLATILE in CREATE TABLE | Removed (use ALTER TABLE after creation) |
CLUSTER / NOT CLUSTER on indexes | NOT CLUSTER removed; CLUSTER kept |
| Duplicate unique index for primary key | Removed (RDS auto-creates it) |
| Table compression | COMPRESS YES added to all tables |
CREATE TABLESPACE | Removed (create tablespaces separately) |
| GRANT statements | Preserved as-is |
call rdsadmin.create_bufferpool('<DBNAME>', 'BP8K', 10000, 'Y', 'Y', 8192);
call rdsadmin.create_tablespace('<DBNAME>', 'TS_DATA_8K', 'BP8K', 8192);
call rdsadmin.create_tablespace('<DBNAME>', 'TS_INDEX_8K', 'BP8K', 8192);Code page, collation, and territory are immutable after database creation, so choose them before you create the target database with rdsadmin.create_database(name, pagesize, codeset, territory, collation). Quick mapping:
| Mainframe CCSID | RDS code page | Collation |
|---|---|---|
| 37 (US/Canada EBCDIC) | ISO-8859-1 | EBCDIC_819_037 |
| 500 / 1047 / 273 (EBCDIC) | ISO-8859-1 | EBCDIC_819_500 |
| 1141 (German + Euro) | ISO-8859-15 | SYSTEM |
| 930 / 939 (Japanese) | UTF-8 or IBM-943 | EBCDIC_932_5026 / _5035 |
| 1390, 1399 (Japanese + Euro) | UTF-8 | SYSTEM |
Watch-outs: UTF-8 expands accented characters from 1 to 2 bytes (truncation risk — consider CODEUNITS32), and ISO-8859-1 silently substitutes out-of-range characters with 0x1A.
For full code page and collation guidance, see code-page-collation.md — the CCSID inventory, the complete decision matrix, rdsadmin.create_database examples, CODEUNITS32 vs OCTETS trade-offs, and source-CCSID checks.
| Tool | Full load | CDC | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS DMS | Yes | No | Full load only from z/OS |
| Precisely Mainframe Replication | Yes | Yes | Initial load uses inserts |
| Mainframe tools (HPU, File-AID, UNLOAD) | Yes | No | Extract to DEL/IXF, convert EBCDIC→ASCII, load via S3 |
| Db2 Export | Yes | No | Best for small/medium tables; use IXF format |
| Db2 Federation | Yes | No | RDS connects to z/OS; LOAD with CURSOR |
| Qlik Replicate | Yes | Yes | ODBC endpoint for Db2 LUW; no bulk load |
| IBM Q Replication (IIDR) | Yes | Yes | SQL or Q Replication; Q Replication requires IBM MQ |
RDS for Db2 supports homogeneous federation. Catalog the z/OS database from within RDS, then load data directly:
-- Catalog the z/OS server in RDS
db2 catalog tcpip node ZOSNODE remote <zos-host> server <port>
db2 catalog database <zos-dbname> as ZOSDB at node ZOSNODE
-- Load from z/OS cursor into RDS table
LOAD FROM (SELECT * FROM ZOSDB.<schema>.<table>) OF CURSOR INSERT INTO <rds-schema>.<table>Extract data using HPU/File-AID/UNLOAD in DEL or IXF format
Convert EBCDIC → ASCII (mainframe tools or iconv)
Copy to S3 using AWS CLI on mainframe (Go SDK for AIX where CLI unavailable)
Load into RDS from S3:
CALL SYSPROC.ADMIN_CMD('LOAD FROM DB2REMOTE://myS3/<path/to/file.ixf> OF IXF INSERT INTO <schema>.<table>');migration.md).