A journey into a mainframe

So this evening I thought: Let's have a mainframe!

This is for Mac, adjust for your system accordingly:

1. Make sure Docker is installed and running.

2. brew install x3270

3. mkdir my-mainframe

4. cd my-mainframe

5. Then write startup.sh in that file with content like this (basically copied from https://github.com/MVS-sysgen/docker-mvsce):
   #!/bin/bash

   docker run -d \

   --name=mvsce \

   -e HUSER=docker \

   -e HPASS=docker \

   -p 2121:3221 \

   -p 2323:3223 \

   -p 3270:3270 \

   -p 3505:3505 \

   -p 3506:3506 \

   -p 8888:8888 \

   -v ./mvsce/config:/config \

   -v ./mvsce/printers:/printers \

   -v ./mvsce/punchcards:/punchcards \

   -v ./mvsce/logs:/logs \

   -v ./mvsce/dasd:/dasd \

   -v ./mvsce/certs:/certs \

   --restart unless-stopped \

   --platform linux/s390x \

   mainframed767/mvsce

6. chmod +x startup.sh

7. ./startup.sh

8. If it all starts smoothly, you can then run the command: c3270 localhost:3270

It gives you a nice welcome screen:

Then enter logon ibmuser/sys1 (the system doesn’t seem to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase, see the readme for all default users) and you have access to the mainframe!

This is also a nice destroy.sh script:

• #!/bin/bash

  docker stop mvsce

  docker rm mvsce

  rm -rf ./mvsce

I also tried ZOC Terminal; the backspace didn’t work in the standard Mac terminal, but it did in ZOC Terminal.

It’s a strange wonderland. If you enter ispf, this happens:

Then you can switch to KICKS with this kind of script (just run kicks after connecting to localhost:3270):

• #!/bin/bash

  docker run -d \

  --name=mvsce \

  -e HUSER=docker \

  -e HPASS=docker \

  -p 2121:3221 \

  -p 2323:3223 \

  -p 3270:3270 \

  -p 3505:3505 \

  -p 3506:3506 \

  -p 8888:8888 \

  -v ./mvsce/config:/config \

  -v ./mvsce/printers:/printers \

  -v ./mvsce/punchcards:/punchcards \

  -v ./mvsce/logs:/logs \

  -v ./mvsce/dasd:/dasd \

  -v ./mvsce/certs:/certs \

  --restart unless-stopped \

  --platform linux/amd64 \

  mainframed767/kicks

There’s even blinking text, but I took the screenshot when it was not visible, so you’ll need to try it out by yourself to find out what the blinking text is.

Also “Clear” is “Shift+Esc” in ZOC Terminal.

Within KICKS (after having pressed “Clear”), you can enter ksgm to get back to the KICKS title screen.

Or you can enter kssf to exit KICKS again.