# Open old ADABAS database **URL:** \ **Category:** Forum\ **Tags:** Adabas-Natural, Adabas, Adabas-on-Mainframes, Adabas-Basics-on-Mainframes\ **Created:** [November 6, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/open-old-adabas-database/184985 "2015-11-06T17:50:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Olivier\_Casteleyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de053/32.png) [@Olivier\_Casteleyn](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Olivier_Casteleyn)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/open-old-adabas-database/184985/1 "2015-11-06T17:50:44Z")
I have a customer who uses a program that has an Adabas database. I want to open it (and export the data). How can I do this? (system is about 10 years old) Thx! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Robinson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/steve_robinson/32/107_2.png) [@Steve\_Robinson](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Steve_Robinson)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/open-old-adabas-database/184985/2 "2015-11-06T21:22:25Z")
What platform (mainframe, Open systems…)? What version of Adabas? Any reason to not have the customer create a workfile for you? What format do you require the data in? ---
**Author:** ![Ralph\_Zbrog](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/ralph_zbrog/32/78_2.png) [@Ralph\_Zbrog](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Ralph_Zbrog)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/open-old-adabas-database/184985/3 "2015-11-06T21:58:56Z")
You may have alternatives, depending upon what software is available to you: . ADABAS Decompress utility (part of Adabas) . Adabas SQL Gateway (for SQL access) . Natural programs . ODBC/JDBC (requires Entire Access) ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Johnson1](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/brian_johnson1/32/163_2.png) [@Brian\_Johnson1](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Brian_Johnson1)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/open-old-adabas-database/184985/4 "2015-11-26T21:56:18Z")
tRelational/DPS would be a good tool to migrate to any RDBMS target even if this old database is still actively being used. It will save a lot of manual effort if there are lots of huge files, where a small database with few files might be better served with one or more of the options mentioned by Ralph. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/open-old-adabas-database/184985/5 "2021-04-02T15:34:37Z")