HL7 Module 10.5 | Understanding and Using HL7 Module | Installing and Using HL7 Module | Configuring webMethods HL7 Module | Configuring Communication Protocols | MLLP | MLLP Connections | Configuring MLLP Connections
 
Configuring MLLP Connections
When you configure MLLP connections, you specify information that Integration Server uses to connect to an HL7 system. You configure MLLP connections using Integration Server Administrator.
*To configure a connection
1. In Integration Server Administrator, go to Solutions > HL7 Module and click MLLP Connections.
2. On the MLLP Connections screen, click Configure New MLLP Connection.
3. On the Connection Types screen, click MLLP Server Connection to display the Configure Connection Type screen.
4. In the MLLP Connections section, use the following fields:
Field
Description/Action
Package
The package in which to create the connection.You must create the package using Developer or Designer before you can specify it using this parameter. For general information about creating packages, see the webmethods Developer User’s Guide or the webMethods Service Development Help for your release.
Note:
Configure the connection in a user-defined package rather than in the WmHL7 package.
Folder Name
The folder in which to create the connection.
Connection Name
The name you want to give the connection. Connection names cannot have spaces or use special characters reserved by Integration Server, Developer, or Designer. For information about the use of special characters in package, folder, and element names, see the webmethods Developer User’s Guide or the webMethods Service Development Help for your release.
5. In the Connection Properties section, use the following fields:
Field
Description
Connection Type
The type of the MLLP connection that you want to configure. Select one of the following connection types:
*Transient The connection is terminated after the execution of the HL7 Module send service. This is the default.
Note:
When you configure a transient MLLP connection, you cannot specify values in the Connection Management Properties section.
*Permanent The connection is added to the connection pool and can be reused.
Host Name
The name of the MLLP server that hosts the HL7 backend system.
Host Port
The port number that the connection will use to connect to the MLLP server.
Connection Timeout
The time in milliseconds for the client to wait before cancelling a connection attempt to the target server. If you do not specify a value in this field, the client uses the default value: 30000 (msec).
Ack Timeout
The time in milliseconds the client waits for an acknowledgement response after it has sent the HL7 2.x message, before closing the communication channel. If no response is received within the specified timeout, HL7 Module logs a warning in the Integration Server logs. The default is -1
*When you enter a negative value or do not enter an ackTimeout value, the client does not wait for the ACK response.
*When you enter a 0 value, the client waits for the ACK response infinitely.
*When you enter a positive value, the client waits for the ACK response for the specified number of milliseconds.
For more information about sending an accept acknowledgment, see Sending an Accept Acknowledgment.
Use TLS
The type of the MLLP connection that you want to use.
Select one of the following types:
*The default value is none. The MLLP connection creates without TLS.
*1.2. MLLP connection creates with TLS 1.2.
*1.3. MLLP connection creates with TLS 1.3.
6. In the Connection Management Properties section, use the following fields to configure a permanent MLLP connection:
Field
Description
Minimum Pool Size
The number of connections to create when the connection is enabled. The module will keep open the number of connections you configure here regardless of whether these connections become idle. The default is 1
Important:
This field cannot take a zero value. When you configure a permanent connection, you must specify a value of 1 or higher. In addition, the value should be less than or equal to the value specified for the Maximum Pool Size.
Maximum Pool Size
The maximum number of connections that can exist at one time in the connection pool. The default is 10
Pool Increment Size
The number of connections by which the pool will be incremented if connections are needed, up to the maximum pool size. The default is 1
Block Timeout (msec)
The number of milliseconds that the Integration Server will wait to obtain a connection with the database before it times out and returns an error. For example, you have a pool with Maximum Pool Size of 20. If you receive 30 simultaneous requests for a connection, 10 requests will be waiting for a connection from the pool. If you set the Block Timeout to 5000, the 10 requests will wait for a connection for 5 seconds before they time out and return an error. If the services using the connections require 10 seconds to complete and return connections to the pool, the pending requests will fail and return an error message stating that no connections are available.
If you set the Block Timeout value too high, you may encounter problems during error conditions. If a request contains errors that delay the response, other requests will not be sent. This setting should be tuned in conjunction with the Maximum Pool Size to accommodate such bursts in processing.
The default is 1000
Expire Timeout (msec)
The number of milliseconds that an inactive connection can remain in the pool before it is closed and removed from the pool.
The connection pool will remove inactive connections until the number of connections in the pool is equal to the Minimum Pool Size. The inactivity timer for a connection is reset when the connection is used by the adapter. If you set the Expire Timeout value too high, you may have a number of unused inactive connections in the pool. This consumes local memory and a connection on your backend resource. This could have an adverse effect if your resource has a limited number of connections.
If you set the Expire Timeout value too low, performance could degrade because of the increased activity of creating and closing connections. This setting should be tuned in conjunction with the Minimum Pool Size to avoid excessive opening/closing of connections during normal processing.
The default is 1000
Startup Retry Count
The number of times that the system should attempt to initialize the connection pool at startup if the initial attempt fails. The default is 0
Startup Backoff Timeout (sec)
The number of seconds that the system should wait between attempts to initialize the connection pool. The default is 10
7. Click Save Connection.
The connection you created appears on the adapter's Connections screen and in Developer or Designer.
You can enable a connection only if the parameters for the connection are valid.