Hints and Tips for Using webmethods EntireX v7.3 About the Author Introduction webmethods EntireX

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1 April 2008 Hints and Tips for Using webmethods EntireX v7.3 By Neil Beesley, Founding Member and Enterprise Software Specialist, Commutual Technical Consulting, LLC About the Author Neil Beesley has spent 20 years developing DBMS and Middleware products. He provides systems software development and systems engineering services to a variety of customers in the United States and overseas. Visit Neil s web site, or contact him at neil.beesley@medigrated.net if you have any questions. webmethods EntireX v8.0 is released with great new features, like out-of-the-box integration with the webmethods ESB, support for large CICS message sizes, enhanced COBOL support, Reliable and Asynchronous Service Calls, and simplified configuration. As a result, developers can use EntireX to quickly and easily encapsulate programming logic into ready-to-use.net, J2EE or Web services without changes to the underlying source code. Watch for an article in the June 2008 edition of TECHniques. Whether you are planning your upgrade to version 8 in the short term or longer term, this article provides tips and techniques for getting the most out of your v7.3 EntireX installation. Improvements will still also apply for version 8. Introduction This article summarizes key messaging capabilities in webmethods EntireX version 7.3, pointing out useful as well as some less well known functionality, and giving hints and tips based on customer experiences. webmethods EntireX webmethods EntireX is at the heart of Software AG s mainframe application modernization and SOA strategy. EntireX includes a high performance yet flexible messaging engine (also referred to as EntireX Broker), addressing the following different messaging paradigms: client server request/reply model, Hints and Tips for Using webmethods EntireX v7.3 Page 1 of 6

2 asynchronous and persistent messaging, as well as a publish/subscribe model. It comes with application bindings to the most popular environments, such as IBM Series Z including CICS and IMS/DC, Microsoft.NET and JAVA, and also includes connectors for integration with IBM WebSphere MQ Series. The messaging engine in EntireX provides the highly efficient, reliable communication layer for the numerous service wrapping capabilities of EntireX. Despite its comprehensive range of abilities, EntireX never ceases to impress those involved with it how quickly and easy it is to get something meaningful up and running, even without previous experience with the product. Since it comes packaged with additional services for security and data conversion, the amount of customization is kept to an absolute minimum, helping to reduce the cost of ownership in terms of DBA and programmer time. It plays well with other vendor products (including other middleware) and significantly assists in protecting the investments that you have already made in your business systems, as well as reducing the risks as you modernize your systems. Version 7.3: Inside the Engine Room Software AG invested the time and energy to streamline the code for version 7.3 in order to achieve a common code base and architecture for the distributed components of the EntireX messaging layer across platforms, whilst at the same time adding new functionality such as SSL for z/os Broker and improving the efficiency of the code, especially when dealing with IP. These changes also resulted in greater performance, scalability and reliability, not to mention a simpler install and configuration. The success of these endeavors owes much to the decision to use IBM Language Environment and C compiler for z/os, z/vse and z/vm [stub only] which in turn allows closer convergence across mainframe, UNIX and Windows platforms. Figure 1 demonstrates improvements realized in terms of transport efficiency when using NET-WORK (ADASVC) and TCP on z/os platform, particularly for larger message sizes. Hints and Tips for Using webmethods EntireX v7.3 Page 2 of 6

3 Broker Kernel and Transport CPU small buffer sizes 40 V72 TCP V72 NET V73 TCP V73 NET 30 CPU Message size (bytes) Broker Kernel and Transport CPU large buffer sizes Note: previously, NET transport was limited to 32K V72 TCP V72 NET V73 TCP V73 NET CPU K 16K 32K 64K 128K 256K 512K 1024K 2048K Message size (K) Figure 1. Performance Improvements Hints and Tips for Using webmethods EntireX v7.3 Page 3 of 6

4 Key Messaging Capabilities Introduced in Version 7.3 SSL Transport for z/os Broker: increased security functionality..net ACI: simplified programming for Windows.NET platform. Dual Command log: greater flexibility and manageability for tracing EntireX commands issued by applications. Persistent store Unload/Load utilities: used to migrate data from one persistent store type to another. Embedded CTREE persistent store mechanism (open systems): replacement for B-Tree persistent store providing improved integrity for persistent messages when the EntireX kernel executes on Windows and UNIX. Improved stub and application information fields in the latest ACI version 9. Simplified installation and configuration with migration utilities for copying old parameter definitions into the version 7.3 EntireX attribute file. Hot Stand-by Broker and Broker-to-Broker communication for enhanced failover capabilities. Other major enhancements in version 7.3 include CentraSite and SOA integration and a fully modernized EntireX Workbench based on Eclipse. For information about further enhancements in version 7.3 please refer to the Software AG Developer Community (note that EntireX is now under the webmethods brand). Hints and Tips 1. Use the Adabas persistent store, especially if you re currently an Adabas DBMS user. This can result in a 4-fold performance improvement on z/os over Data in Virtual (DIV), depending upon the behavior of your application. Adabas PLOG functionality will provide you with greater ability for restore/recovery across all platforms. It takes slightly longer to set up, but is well worth the effort. Read the documentation for sizing the persistent store file and adjusting the Adabas nucleus parameters LWP, NISNHQ and NH. For open systems, ensure you are using the latest Adabas version. Hints and Tips for Using webmethods EntireX v7.3 Page 4 of 6

5 2. Install the new Adabas version 8 SVC and use this with EntireX on z/os. It allows you to use TRANSPORT=NET (Adabas IPC mechanism) even when sending/receiving large data buffers greater than 32K, provided the applications is on the same machine as the EntireX Broker. Not only are there significant performance benefits over TRANSPORT=TCP for local z/os applications, but it also facilitates simplified security configuration using trusted user ID, if you happen to be using security. You must set EXTENDED-ACB-SUPPORT=YES in the DEFAULTS=NETWORK section of the attribute file to take advantage of Adabas version 8 SVC features as well as setting appropriate values for IUBL and NABS here. 3. Implement Dual Command Log, if you expect to do any logging at all. Using this means that you avoid an ever increasing trace output from the EntireX Broker on the JES spool. You can automate the CLOG switch by watching for the WTO message issued by the EntireX Broker when CLOG files are switched. Dual command logging also comes with filtering according to user ID and the Class/Server/Service. 4. ICU conversion (first available in version 7.2) now replaces the proprietary ECS conversion mechanism, delivering greater coverage of different code pages. The mechanism is optimized for high performance and reduced memory use under EntireX version 7.3. However, I recommend paying attention to the following when using ICU: a. Ensure your applications are using the latest EntireX stubs and ACI version 8 or above, if possible. b. Check which code pages are specified by your application and in the EntireX attribute file against version 7.3 EntireX documentation. 5. SSL allows you to protect the transmission of data between distributed application components and the mainframe host. It s normally sufficient to define the X509 certificate only for the EntireX Broker, in which case specify VERIFY-CLIENT=NO in the DEFAULTS=SSL section of the attribute file. It s recommended to use RACF key ring or equivalent functionality in order to protect and store the certificate in RACF, etc. Hints and Tips for Using webmethods EntireX v7.3 Page 5 of 6

6 Summary of EntireX Version 7.x In conclusion, these are the major milestones achieved regarding messaging in EntireX Version 7.x. These features became available during the lifetime of EntireX versions 7.1.1, 7.2.1, and 7.3.x on various platforms: Adabas Persistent Store and JMS EntireX version 7.1 Publish subscribe functionality EntireX version New Improved EntireX kernel for VSE EntireX version Significant performance, reliability and functionality improvements EntireX version 7.3 New TCP/IP capable stub for z/vm EntireX version 7.3. Hints and Tips for Using webmethods EntireX v7.3 Page 6 of 6

What s new with EntireX Communicator 7.3 Rolf Bahlke crossvision Chief Architect

What s new with EntireX Communicator 7.3 Rolf Bahlke crossvision Chief Architect October 2006 Project Status Next release of EntireX Communicator Version 7.3 Planned release date end of November 2006 z/os