Cobol Licensing at a Disaster Recovery test

[Donald C Nelson]

I will be attending a DR and we are going to test some Cobol apps. Do I have to get a Cobol license to test the apps at the DR site?

[A. Clay Stephenson]

When you don't bother to mention the COBOL vendor or version, it's difficult to be of much help. In general, the answer (as is true of all software) depends upon the license agreement itself. Some COBOL versions require no run-time licensing at all so as long as you are not compiling source code, nothing additional is needed. Most software vendors have provisions for DR testing. For those licenses tied to a MAC address or other unique system identifier, your DR plan should also include contact information and instructions for obtaining and installing new license codes.

[Donald C Nelson]

Sorry, it is Object Cobol/UX Developer and Run Time ver 11.00

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

By the way, the best advice I can give about DR testing is to assume that you are dead -- or whoever the author of the plan is, is dead. You can be there as a ghost and observe but not answer any questions. This is the surest way to know if you have a workable, robust DR plan. It's those assumptions about those little things that "everyone" knows that will break DR every time. For example, don't assume that anyone can use the editor, vi. If that is an assumption then that should be clearly stated in the DR plan.