Deploying NTT Data UniKix in Azure, Part 1 Deploying the VM
Published Aug 14 2019 11:23 AM 8,532 Views
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Introduction

UniKix by NTT Data is one of the leading Mainframe Re-hosting solutions available for the Azure Platform.   With UniKix, you can extend and evolve your legacy Mainframe applications by migrating them to Azure, where you gain the extensibility, flexibility, and scalability of the cloud.  

 

At a high level, UniKix is composed of two main environment, the TPE (Transaction Processing Environment) and the BPE (Batch Processing Environment)

 

This blog is Part 1, where you install UniKix on a preconfigured Azure Virtual Machine (VM).  In Part 2, you see how to deploy, configure, and run the ACCT demo application that comes with the base installation.

 

When complete, you will be running a Mainframe legacy application in Azure.  Ready? Let's get started.

 

Deploying the Pre-Configured VM

The NTT Data Unikix Mainframe Re-hosting solution is now available in the Azure Marketplace.  It is packaged as a free trial with pre-set configurations. 

 

1. Go to the Azure portal and log into your Azure subscription, and select Create Resource in the upper left corner. 

 

2. In the search box type "unikix".  This will allow you to the select the Unikix Mainframe Re-Hosting Software.  The overview page is displayed.

 

 

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3. Select the Plans tab.  You have 2 options:

 

a. Select the Hourly plan (recommended) for a version that requires minimal configuration. The application and license are already installed. The rest of the setup steps assume the Hourly plan, which bills Microsoft for the Azure resources that are used on an hourly, pay-as-you-go basis, and bills NTT Data for UniKix. This is a great option to use for evaluating UniKix if you are not an existing NTT Data customer. 

 

b.Select BYOL plan if you are already an NTT Data customer. This option provides a VM that contains the installation package, but it has not been deployed or configured, so it requires more work. You are responsible for bringing you own license file. 

 

Note: For the purposes of this walk-through, you will be using the Hourly Software Plan since it is more concise and already has the application and license installed.

 

4. On the Overview tab select the Start with a pre-set configuration option.  This will take you to the page where you can select a VM type matched for your particular workload. 

 

5. On the next page, you need to select the workload environment. There are 3 available.

 

a. D-Series (General Purpose) for Dev/Test.

b. E-Series (Memory Optimized) for General Purpose workloads.

c. F-Series (Compute Optimized) for Production/Mission Critical workloads. 

 

Four our walk-through, select the D-Series (General Purpose).

 

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6. At the lower left corner, select Continue to Create VM.

 

7. On the Create Virtual Machine page, select the subscription and resource group you want to use.  Name the VM and specify the Azure Region you want to deploy into.  The VM size is based on your previous choice.

 

Note: For authentication, you can use either a password (less secure) or ssh public key.  For this walk-through you will use ssh public key You will need to generate a SSH public key to access the VM.  This process will  vary depending on what OS you are using.

 

8.   To generate the SSH public key that is required to access the VM, use one of the following options depending on you operating system:

 

a. If you are using Linux or OS X (Mac), you can  drop to a bash shell and use the ssh-keygen command. 

 

b. If you are using Windows, I would recommend using the PuTTYGen tool which is a free download.  

 

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9. When you are ready, select the "Review + Create" button on the bottom left of the page to validate your parameters and allow you to create the VM

 

10. On the next page select Create, then wait a few minutes for the VM to be created.

 

11. When the VM is created, click on the "Go To Resource" button.  This will take you to the overview blade for the VM you just create. 

 

12. Select Connect to copy the ssh command for connecting to the VM.  You can execute this from a command prompt or bash shell (depending on your OS).  Remember, you will need to reference the private key in order to log in.  This is done under the AUTH option in PuTTY.

 

 

At this point you should have a ssh terminal session to you VM.

 

Next Steps

In the next post, we will configure the TPE and Compile and deploy the ACCT applications.

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Last update:
‎Dec 17 2019 08:14 AM
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