Tips, Tricks, and Techniques
Last update: 30 April 2004
Conversion from NATURAL 217 to NATURAL 22x
So... you want to convert from NAT217 to NAT22x... please follow these steps for a smooth conversion.
Before you begin your conversion, review the NAT22 Planning Guide (manual NAT-220-005), the NAT222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227 and 228 Release Notes, and the Supplemental Release Notes (US) (manual NAT-224-009). These documents contain important information on NATURAL features, documentation corrections/changes, and early-warnings (when applicable).
Information in the Release Notes is NOT duplicated from one SM-level to the next, so it is recommended that these notes be considered as a single document, readily accessable to those installing and maintaining NATURAL.
- Creation of new FNAT and FUSER files.
The FDT for the NATURAL system file has changed in NAT22, and will affect your choice of files in the new environment as follows: - Step 1, Creation of an FNAT file, must be performed if you will be using PREDICT or NATURAL SECURITY. The new FDT for NAT22 was made specifically for those two products.
- You may use an existing FUSER file from NAT21 in the NAT22 environment, since the FDT changes do not affect the FUSER file. However, we DO NOT recommend sharing an FUSER file between NAT21 and NAT22 environments, since the NAT22 INPL loads objects into library SYSTEM on FUSER which might cause unpredictable results when executed from the NAT21 environment.
- When running the INPL of the NAT22 FNAT file be sure to explicitly specify your FNAT and FUSER file assignments. This is important because the INPL process will load objects to library SYSTEM on FUSER, as well to SYSTEM on FNAT.
- Migrating Objects from a NAT21 FUSER to a NAT22 FUSER:
- In NAT22, use NATUNLD to unload all NAT objects from the NAT21 FUSER libraries. For example:
LOGON SYSTEM NATUNLD ALL * FM LIB * WHERE DBID V21 FNR XXX
- In NAT22, use NATLOAD with the EXCEPT option to exclude all SYS* libraries. This step ensures that only user-written programs are loaded; not any SOFTWARE AG supplied programs/modules. For example:
LOGON SYSTEM NATLOAD LOAD EXCEPT ALL * FM LIBRARY SYS*
Then, in NAT22, use NATLOAD to load only user-written programs and related objects from library SYSTEM. (SYSMAIN is an alternate method.) For example: LOGON SYSTEM NATLOAD LOAD ALL xxxxxxxx FM LIBRARY SYSTEM
where xxxxxxxx is the name of the individual object.
This step should be omitted if you do not use the SYSTEM library to house any user-written programs, etc.
Note: If the entire SYSTEM library is loaded using NATLOAD, old SOFTWARE AG supplied modules can overlay the newly INPL'ed modules which may cause unpredictable results when executed from the NAT22 environment.
- If you have user-supplied error messages, migrate these error messages via SYSMAIN, or with the SYSERR unload and load facilities ERRULDUS and ERRLODUS.
- Continue with your NATURAL Installation per the Operations Manual.