Mainframe Decommission Project

Student Information Systems

*** SCSR on October 15, 2003 ***

The impending departure of the McGill Mainframe computer has necessitated a review of all the central administrative systems which have been developed over the past 30 years to store and process data on the mainframe. Our current plans have IMS shutting down on November 30, 2003, and the entire mainframe shutting down early in 2004.Our review has resulted in assigning the data to one of the following groups.

  1. The data is no longer needed and may be discarded.
  2. The data may be needed at some time in the future, so we will convert it and store it on some other medium, such as CD’s or DLT’s. This will allow us the luxury of retaining data in an inexpensive fashion, and have it available just in case we need to retrieve it in the future.
  3. The data will need to be accessed at some point after the mainframe shuts down. This data will be converted and stored on some other medium, loaded into new Oracle tables, and functionality developed to access and process this data as per user requirements.
  4. The data will need to be accessed as soon as IMS shuts down.
  5. The data will need to be accessed as soon as the mainframe shuts down.

Admissions

  1. History Unload. Group 3.
  1. Transaction accume files. Group 2.
  1. ENTREE. Data has been converted for both BEC and OUAC. Group 2.
  1. School Database. Most of the data is in Banner. Some of the data (e.g. admissions institute code, certain statistical data)is not in Banner and may be needed in the future.Group 3.
  1. Mailing Database. Group 1.
  1. Test Scores. TOEFL, LSAT, etc. Group 1.

Student Records

  1. Student Database. Final unstripped student unload (SRTOTAL) will be converted. Almost all historical data which was needed has already been converted to Banner.Some data has not e.g. CEGEP averages, foreign fee exemption codes, courses’ offering faculty (Banner department code). Group 2.
  1. Course Database. Course and timetable unload masters will be converted.Some of the timetable and course enrolment information will be needed by the Timetable Office. Group3.
  1. Academic program tables. Data for 2002H onwards is in Banner. Anna to check if we need earlier years in Banner. The whole table back to 1972 has already been converted. Group 3?
  1. Code tables. Group 3.
  1. Transaction accume files. We have files going back to 1991. May not need course and timetable transactions kept. Group 3.
  1. RECU files. Fee, student and course unloads used as input to last 7 years of RECU submissions will be converted. Student, course, and program files submitted to Quebec will be converted.Group 2.
  1. Thesis Database. Group 1.
  1. Transcript Requests. Group 1.
  1. EMS Mark Entry. Group 1.
  1. Student Number Database. Group2.
  1. Administrative unit code table. A separate project just completed has created a McGill Organization Table in Oracle to replace the old administrative unit table. Complete.
  1. Unit/sub-unit Table (FRUNITE). This table was maintained on the mainframe via TSO by the University Planning Office (UPO), and is used for government reporting. It has been converted to Oracle as part of the McGill Organization Table project. Complete.
  1. Clarder Code Table. This table is maintained by UPO, and is used for government reporting. It has been converted to Oracle as part of the McGill Organization Table project. Complete.

IMS

IMS will be shutting down November 30, 2003. No updates or queries against IMS databases will be available after that date. We need to review what current IMS functions may need to be rewritten to go against the same historical data. That data may already exist in Banner or will need to be loaded into newly designed Oracle tables.

The following sub-systems will no longer be available once IMS is gone. The data they accessed, for example student records or course data, will be converted as mentioned in previous items above. The groupings below indicate whether new functionality will need to be developed on the Banner platform.

  1. TOUCHTN/MARS. Telephone registration system. Group 1.
  1. CATS – Course and Timetable system. Group3.(Refer to Item 2 Course Database under Student Records)
  1. OASIS – Dried up.Group 1.
  1. REGDATA – IMS Functions REG1 and REG2. Group 1.
  1. SATAN – SR Audit Trail; was only ever used by developers for diagnostic/research purposes. Group 1.
  1. SRREPL – Student Record Reporting – This was for ad hoc SR reporting, but the only thing that might still be used is the table-creation process SRRLOAD. (SRR-ADVISOR, SRR-LANGUAGE). Operations still runs this. Allan to check with Operations.
  1. STUDREC – Schedule25. Has been replaced in Oracle. Steve Olive to check with Martha Hancock. Group 1?
  1. THOR – Transaction History (IMS function TRAC); used to trace SR, CRSE changes.Contains last 18 months of transactions. See item “Transaction accume files” under Student Records above. Group 3.

Miscellaneous Items

  1. Continuing Education (CE) Archive System. Used by CE to keep track of paper files they have sent to Archives. Currently exists in MUSIC System. We need to meet with CE to determine requirements for a replacement system. May not be needed till June, 2004.Hugh Ray to follow-up with CE. Group 3?
  1. Transcript Index. Johanne Brossard to spoke to Joan Barrett. We do not need to retain the TRINDEX data. The data has been converted by the SIS team and put into an Oracle table. Group2.
  1. Pre-1975 student transcripts. Academic data for several thousand students that was not put into Banner. Group 3?
  1. ADMMAIL/ADMSCHL – Admissions mailing system. Internal mailing of calendars to McGill departments is still run from the mainframe. We do not need to convert the data. Is a new Oracle system required to support this? Laura and Sylvia to discuss. Group 3?

SCSR031015.doc- 1 -10/24/2018