What is Assembler Conversion with mLogica?

AWS Mainframe Modernization Code Conversion with mLogica (Code conversion) automatically converts z/OS mainframe Assembler code to COBOL. The service runs within your AWS account and doesn't transmit or store Assembler or COBOL source code outside the AWS account. Code conversion allows your authorized account to pull an assembler image using the AWS CodeBuild service for your intended code conversion.

AWS Mainframe Modernization provides you with the ability to set up builds and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines for your migrated applications. These builds and pipelines use AWS CodeBuild and Amazon S3 to provide this feature. AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed build service that compiles your source code, runs unit tests, and produces artifacts that are ready to deploy. Amazon S3 is an object storage service that offers industry- leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance.

Code conversion compilers

Code conversion can be configured to emit COBOL suitable for compilation and running in several target environments with different compilers. Some of these include:

Code conversion architecture

The following is an architectural diagram for the Code conversion process:

Automation approach

To use Code conversion with CodeBuild, the Assembler code needs to be uploaded to an Amazon S3 bucket, to later configure conversion parameters and invoke a CodeBuild project to perform each step in the conversion process. The target COBOL code is automatically stored in a specified path in the Amazon S3 bucket.

Security

AWS Mainframe Modernization Code conversion enables conversion while keeping all source and target code in your AWS account. Source Assembler code, target COBOL code, and configuration files are stored in your Amazon S3 bucket. The automated conversion tool runs as a container in the CodeBuild environment in your AWS account. The code stays in your account at all times.

To enable the Conversion tool to access your Amazon S3 bucket, you grant permissions to the bucket to an AWS service role. When you configure CodeBuild, you will set this service role so that CodeBuild can access the container image and access your Amazon S3 bucket.

Additional resources

Along with the Tutorial: Convert code from Assembler to COBOL in AWS Mainframe Modernization, here are some additional resources where you can learn about creating the AWS CloudFormation templates and other information about converting Assembler to COBOL.