VB.NET and cobol

[shannanl]

We have an application that uses what I believe to be a cobol database or file. Is it possible, given the username and password, for me to access this database or file? What provider, etc. would I use?

Thanks,

Shannan

 

[ThatRickGuy]

If you can find out what database engine it uses, you can get connection string info here:

http://www.connectionstrings.com/

If it is using a flat file, you'll either have to dig up some documentation on the format, or manually pull it apart to determine what data is available.

-Rick

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[shannanl]

How can I find out what engine it uses? I have access to the unix server that it runs on.

Thanks in advance.

Shannan

 

[onpnt]

Was it a packaged installation with an Express version possibly? Can you look on the server it resides and check the services possibly to see whats there?

DB or Flat file I would think to be able to work with it successfully and in a stable manner you'll need to research what it is and find it for the most part.

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[shannanl]

This is the back end of a hospital information system. We only have the financial/registration/insurance part of the system and it is terrible. I would love to be able to access the database/file system and run queries against it. The reporting part of the system is terrible. I don't mind taking the time to research the structure of the file but I don't know how to get to it. Of course the company is not going to help me. I can access the server but it is unix and I am not a unix man so I will need instructions on how to browse the server.

Thanks,

Shannan

 

[ThatRickGuy]

Unfortunatly I don't know of any easy way to find out what you are looking for. Your best bet would be to start learning how to get around in Unix. Specificly, see if you can get a list of active processes (like the task manager in windows), then google each of those processess and see if any of them are related to a database engine. If you can get that, you might be able to set up an ODBC connection to it and use Access to create a copy of it so you can learn the table structures.

-Rick

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[shannanl]

Okay Rick. I will see if I can get a list of processes and go from there.

Thanks,

Shannan

 

[onpnt]

You can use command prompt to telnet to the unix box with it's registered name and type this command

ps -fe

That will give you a list of all running processes

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[shannanl]

I can actually get on the Unix box itself so I can browse the directories, etc. When I run the ps -fe, how do I keep it from displaying all of the information at once. I need it to display one screen, then pause, etc. Is there a way to scroll through this display?

Thanks,

Shannan

 

[ThatRickGuy]

No idea, in most telnet clients you can scroll back in the buffer though.

-Rick

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[onpnt]

I'm not a unix admin by any means but from memory you can just output the sp command to a file with "> filename" after it or any command

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[newora]

Try ps -ef | pg <ENTER>

 

[shannanl]

Newora that did it. Now I need to find out what each of those do. That is going to be a long process. I will update when I finish that.

Thanks,

Shannan

 

[onpnt]

Glad someone popped in that knew what they are talking about this was border line Unix forum for a minute there

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[sburleson]

Sometimes fileshare is used in the COBOL/Unix which is usually determined by an executable named "fs" that will show up in the "ps" list that others have mentioned.