Set up and access Mainframe Assessment Tool

Mainframe Assessment Tool is packaged as a disk image that you can use to create a virtual machine (VM) instance on Compute Engine. The VM runs a web-based portal that you can connect to and interact with to perform an analysis of your mainframe applications. Mainframe Assessment Tool also includes AI-powered code analysis that requires access to Vertex AI API.

This page describes how to create a Mainframe Assessment Tool VM instance and access it from your local Linux or Windows machine.

Before you begin

Complete the steps to prepare for discovery and assessment.

Set up Mainframe Assessment Tool VM instance

To set up a Mainframe Assessment Tool VM instance, follow these steps:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, click Activate Shell ButtonActivate Cloud Shell.

    Go to the Google Cloud console

  2. To create a Mainframe Assessment Tool VM instance, run the following command:

    gcloud compute instances create mainframe-assessment-tool-1-instance \
  --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE --service-account=SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME \
  --scopes=cloud-platform --image-project=migrate-modernize-public \
  --image-family=mainframe-assessment-tool --zone=ZONE

    Replace the following:

    • MACHINE_TYPE: if you run assessments on zip files larger than 5 MB or run multiple assessments in parallel, use the e2-standard-8 machine type. Use the e2-standard-4 machine type if you run assessments only on zip files smaller than 5 MB.
    • SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME: the name of the dedicated service account that you created.
    • ZONE: the zone where you want to create the VM. All zones in all the Generative AI on Vertex AI regions are supported.

    If you've configured the firewall in your project to allow IAP tunnels only for VMs with certain network tags, then you can also add the network tags using the --tags flag. For example, --tags=assessment-iap.

    If your project already has a working Cloud NAT (network address translation) setup, then you just need to add the --no-address flag to the gcloud command that creates the VM.

Set up access to Mainframe Assessment Tool from your local computer

You can access Mainframe Assessment Tool from your Linux, macOS, or Windows-based local computer by using Google Cloud CLI through an Identity-Aware Proxy tunnel.

To create an encrypted tunnel to a port of Mainframe Assessment Tool VM instance, run the following command:

   gcloud compute start-iap-tunnel VM_NAME 4000 --zone=ZONE \
     --local-host-port=localhost:LOCAL_PORT --project=PROJECT_ID

Replace the following:

  • VM_NAME: the name of the VM.
  • ZONE: the VM zone.
  • LOCAL_PORT: any port number on your local machine that you want to use for the tunneled connection to the Mainframe Assessment Tool.
  • PROJECT_ID: the project ID of the VM project.

Google Cloud CLI performs a connectivity test with the VM instance, then opens a tunnel and shows a port number as follows:

   Listening on port 6060.

All traffic sent to localhost:LOCAL_PORT is forwarded to the Mainframe Assessment Tool VM instance. The port is only accessible by applications running on your local computer.

To access Mainframe Assessment Tool from your local computer, open a web browser and go to localhost:LOCAL_PORT.

What's next