--- Nouvelles ---

En français :

Dans le cadre initial d’une étude de compilateurs COBOL alternatifs à celui de MicroFocus pour le compte du Conseil Général du Val de Marne, OpenCobol a été retenu pour élaborer une maquette pour la compilation d’un progiciel de comptabilité publique (1,5 millions de lignes)

La maquette a permis de valider ce choix, y compris avec l’utilisation de fichiers séquentiels indexés, avec OpenCobol version 0.33 moyennant de petites adaptations du code COBOL (principalement utilisation de mots-clés réservés et mots-clés non implémentés). De plus, elle a permis, au moins, de constater aucune perte en performances.

Après la qualification fonctionnelle de cette maquette, le progiciel est en production depuis juillet 2011 sous Linux RedHat Entreprise Linux 4 Advanced Server 32 bits en environnement virtualisé VMWARE ESX – 4 Go de mémoire vive – processeur bi-cœur AMD Opteron 6176 (tm).

Le progiciel est déployé pour 650 utilisateurs dont 150 connectés simultanément, au moment des pics d’activité.

Avec la montée de version du progiciel, une validation fonctionnelle est en cours depuis septembre 2011 avec OpenCobol version 1.1 sous Linux RedHat Entreprise Linux 5 Advanced Server 64 bits et processeur bi-cœur Quad-Core AMD Opteron 8356 (tm). On ne constate aucune perte de performances liée à la nouvelle version d’OpenCobol (mais perte de 10% à 20% liée au progiciel après campagne dans les deux environnements).



--- Breaking News ---

In english :

As part of an initial study for "le Conseil Général du Val de Marne" of COBOL compilers for finding an alternative to that of MicroFocus, OpenCobol was selected to develop a model for the compilation of a public accounting package (1.5 million lines).

The model had to validate this choice, including with the use of sequential indexed files, with OpenCobol version 0.33 and small adjustments to the COBOL code (mainly using reserved keywords and keywords not implemented). Furthermore, it showed no loss of performance.

After the functional qualification of this model, the software is in production since July, 2011 under Linux RedHat Enterprise Linux 4 Advanced Server 32-bit virtualized environment VMWARE ESX - 4 GB of RAM - processor dual AMD Opteron 6176 (tm).

The software package is deployed for 650 users whose 150 connected simultaneously, at the peaks of activity.

With the rise of the package version, a functional validation is in progress since September 2011 with OpenCobol version 1.1 under Linux RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 Advanced Server 64-bit and dual Quad-Core AMD Opteron 8356 (tm) processor. No loss of performance related to the new version of OpenCobol (but related to the package of 10% to 20% loss) after campaign in the two environments.



eraso (eric.rasoa@sutec.fr)

Nice news Eric.

Cheers,
Brian

Yes, very nice news. If you talk about performance it is highly interesting what C-compiler (I guess GCC 4.5/4.6 ?) and what command line parameters you've used, especially -O2 (for C compiler optimization), -debug (for enabling run-time checks), -m (dynamic modules), maybe passed C-compiler options for compiling only for the specific processors in use?

What ISAM-implemantation do you use (I guess BDB)? Does this work without problems in your multi-user environment? Do you configured your ISAM-backend somehow?

human

Hello,

With OC 0.33 :
- compilation is done with :
* -x/-m -free (without any other particular options except for debugging : -debug -ftrace ...)
* gcc version is 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-9)
- ISAM files are handled by DBBerkeley 4.2.52 without any particular options or configuration

With OC 1.1 :
- compilation is done with :
* -x/-m -fixed (without any other particular options)
* gcc version is 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)
- ISAM files are handled by DBBerkeley 4.3.29 without any particular options or configuration

FYI : The main cobol component becomes a program that calls shared libraries. Each cobol program is compiled to become a shared library.

ISAM files are only used by batch programs which run nightly.

Hope this helps.

KR,

eraso

Thank you for this additional information.

Is it possible to do before calling cobc (will lead to modules that won't run on other machines) and add -O2 to the command line for cobc to see how the performance part is changed?

human