Providing OLE DB Access

As an alternative to using the ODBC/DRDA Drivers, SNA Server provides record-level access to mainframe and AS/400 files using the OLE DB Provider for AS/400 and VSAM feature.

Leveraging the advantages of OLE DB as a common interface to various data sources, OLE DB Provider for AS/400 and VSAM lets you:

• Customize solutions for reading from and writing to AS/400 and mainframe file systems without first migrating the information to the PC platform.
• Integrate nonstructured data with desktop and server-based databases and tools.
• Develop applications using high-level interfaces, such as ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), which supports Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual J++, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), and Microsoft Scripting.

By providing applications with the ability to access and manipulate host files at the record level, you can leverage investments in host-based storage, management, backup, and security systems.

Figure 9.1 Using OLE DB Provider for AS/400 and VSAM.

OLE DB Provider uses the record-level input/output (RLIO) protocol of the IBM Distributed Data Management (DDM) architecture (level 2 and higher). This feature is implemented as a source DDM requester and interoperates with target DDM server implementations on most popular host environments, including MVS/ESA, OS/390, and OS/400.

SNA Server facilitates communication between the client application and the host database over an APPC (LU 6.2) connection to the host system.

OLE DB Provider supports the following features:

• Fixed and variable logical record length classes
• Indexed and sequential record access
• File and record locking
• File and record attribute preservation

The following table summarizes the data file types supported by OLE DB Provider on AS/400 and mainframe systems.

Table 9.1 Data file types supported by OLE DB Provider

AS/400 systems	Mainframe systems
Keyed and non-keyed physical files	SAM data sets, including BSAM and QSAM
Logical files	VSAM data sets, including ESDS, KSDS, RRDS, VRRDS
	Alternate index for ESDS and KSDS data sets
	PDS/PDSE members

Complete information on using the OLE DB Provider for AS/400 and VSAM feature is provided in the Microsoft SNA Server Software Development Kit documentation, included with SNA Server.