PopUp Architecture & Integrations

PopUp Mainframe is available in various different "flavours" to suit your individual requirements.

Below is listed some of the different styles of architecture PopUp supports, as well as the most common integrations with other vendor software.


How PopUp Works

The stand-alone PopUp Mainframe forms the foundation of our offering.

diagram showing the z/OS environment, apps and masked data coming from Z hardware, going the the PopUp (which can run on-prem, in the cloud or IFL). Then a gold copy is created and used to populate the child instance PopUps. Teams push code changes back to the physical mainframe as needed, with UAT happening on the physical mainframe.

  1. Once the use cases have been identified, the required data and applications can be migrated from the physical mainframe to the PopUp, to build a "PopUp server gold copy". Data can be masked/sanitised in the prod zone. The PopUp server gold copy can run on Z or X hardware.
  2. Once an approved "gold copy" PopUp image is ready, it is easy to create working copies in any non-production environment.
  3. A working instance of the "PopUp server gold copy" can be stood up in the any non-prod environment, running on Z or X, and provides capacity to address the use case.
  4. Code changes can be managed using the existing SCM, or an alternative.
  5. Once the use case is complete, the code changes can be promoted via the preferred mechanism (e.g. automation or manual deploy) to the physical mainframe test environment.

The below diagram shows the networking required for a standard PopUp Mainframe deployment.

diagram showing data coming from Z hardware going to the PopUps, the PopUp server gold copy and child copy VMs, all connected to the PopUp license server and optionaly a 3270 emulator or IDE

Note:

  • PopUps can run on Z or X, and can be sent between the two using FastTrack.
  • A connection to the PopUp license server is required from any running PopUp.
  • To connect to the PopUp z/OS, a 3270 emulator or any z/OS-compatible IDE can be used.

For full details on network requirements, see System Requirements.


Imagine being able to turn back time, and restore a previous version of your PopUp in seconds. FastTrack offers a guaranteed way to go back to the last working version of your PopUp environment, no matter how badly it's broken.

FastTrack is an optional extra which can be used with PopUp. It provides the ability to take snapshots on your entire z/OS system at any time, rollback to one of those snapshots or send a snapshot to a remote PopUp. For more details, see FastTrack.

Multiple train tracks with branches, stations (snapshots) and a train (with a PopUp logo on it


PopUp Mainframe integrates fully with Delphix Continuous Data (virtualization) and Delphix Continuous Compliance (masking).

PopUp can be integrated with Delphix Continuous Data only, to provide the virtualisation capabilities. Additionally, if required, Delphix Continuous Compliance can be used to provide masking and compliance capabilities for your mainframe data.

How PopUp & Delphix Works

  1. Once the use cases have been identified, we support you to migrate the required data and applications from the physical mainframe to the PopUp in order to build a "gold copy PopUp". This gold copy would typically be sanitized and verified within a secure environment (e.g. prod zone) to prevent compliance breach before duplication to dev or test environments.
  2. Masking of sensitive data is automatically actioned by pre-defined, cross domain algorithms within the Delphix Continuous Compliance engine (masking).
  3. The secure, "gold copy PopUp" is ingested into the Delphix Continuous Data Engine (virtualization).
  4. A working instance of the "gold copy PopUp" is stood up in the dev environment and provides capacity to address the use case.
  5. Once the use case is complete, the code changes are promoted via the customer's preferred mechanism (e.g. automation or manual deploy) to the physical mainframe test environment.

For Delphix configuration details specific to PopUp Mainframe integration, click here: Delphix Configuration


Delphix Continuous Compliance (Data Masking)

One option for data compliance on the PopUp is using Delphix Continuous Compliance. Depending on the constraints of the operating environment, data can be masked on the physical mainframe (prior to the data migration process) or masked on the PopUp Mainframe (after the data migration process).

PopUp provides integration to Delphix Continuous Compliance which provides an efficient and seamless route to masking any mainframe file types (including VSAM and IMS types).

For further information on masking data on the PopUp, see this video.


We have partnered with BMC to install and configure their popular DevOps tools (AMI DevX group of products) on the PopUp for your convenience.

Here is a video demonstrating the power of using BMC's development and testing tools on PopUp Mainframe, orchestrated here with a GitHub Actions pipeline:

This is an example of a common CI/CD pipleine scenario:


From Azure MarketPlace, you can have your own PopUp Mainframe running in the cloud in minutes.

The PopUp virtual machine has been built, configured and performance tested to run optimally in Azure cloud. It gives the excellent performance and reliability you expect from Azure infrastructure.

PopUp is leading the way in cutting edge mainframe modernization practices. PopUp’s latest Azure offering takes you one step closer to creating mainframe environments on demand and accelerating your projects.

Installing PopUp Mainframe on Microsoft Azure


Page last revised on: 2026-01-29