Enhanced BS2000 Support in EntireX Version 10.3


What's New in Version 10.3

EntireX support for BS2000 was thoroughly reworked and is now at a level comparable with z/OS; highlights are listed here:

See Platform Coverage for EntireX components supported under BS2000.

Application Monitoring

The EntireX Broker and RPC Server for BS2000 have been enhanced to support Application Monitoring. The EntireX components collect response times that are processed by the Application Monitoring Data Collector.

Server Mapping Files for COBOL

The RPC Server for BS2000 supports client-side server mapping files for COBOL (Designer file with extension .cvm). Previous versions of EntireX support server-side mapping files(extension .svm) for COBOL only. These files need to be deployed to the target RPC server. Server-side mapping files can be migrated easily to client-side mapping files, see Migrating Server Mapping Files under Server Mapping Files for COBOL in the Designer documentation. See also Server Mapping Files for COBOL in the EntireX Version 9.7 Release Notes.

Support of Long N/NU/P/PU Data Types

The RPC Server for BS2000 now supports numeric data types up to 31 digits on BS2000. See also Support of Long N/NU/P/PU Data Types in the EntireX Version 9.7 Release Notes.

SAGTRPC and Simplified ICU Conversion

EntireX Broker now supports complex codepages such as multibyte, double-byte, EBCDIC stateful, Hebrew803, as well as Arabic shaping for RPC-based components and Reliable RPC. SAGTRPC detects single-byte codepages automatically and converts them quickly and efficiently in one step from source to target encoding. This means that for single-byte codepages, SAGTRPC is the same as SAGTCHA, which simplifies configuration: for service-specific broker attribute CONVERSION configure the following:

  • SAGTRPC for RPC-based components and Reliable RPC

  • SAGTCHA for ACI-based programming as in previous versions of EntireX.

See also What's New > Simplified ICU Conversion in the EntireX Version 9.5 Release Notes.

Automatic Character Conversion

EntireX Broker has a reworked mechanism for character conversion where incorrect configurations (e.g. RPC communication without character conversion configured) are detected. The RPC Server for BS2000 now uses this mechanism. See also Automatic Character Conversion in the EntireX Version 10.1 Release Notes.

On-error Trace for ICU Conversion

EntireX Broker and its conversion approaches SAGTCHA and SAGTRPC provide an on-error trace. See TRACE option of the service-specific broker attribute CONVERSION in the attribute file.

See also What's New > On-error Trace for ICU Conversion in the EntireX Version 9.5 Release Notes.

Unique Message ID

With ACI version 11 and above, all messages sent to the broker are given a unique message ID. This message ID is useful for tracking individual messages in the trace and log files. See Unique Message ID in the EntireX Broker ACI Programming documentation. PSTORE-VERSION=5 is required to save and restore message IDs of persistent data. See also Unique Message ID in the EntireX Version 10.1 Release Notes.

Other Changes and Enhancements

Features dropped for BS2000

This section lists major features that have been dropped or deprecated since the last version of EntireX under BS2000:

Encryption

The encryption/decryption mechanism provided by EntireX Security is deprecated. We strongly recommend using the Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security protocol. See SSL/TLS and Certificates with EntireX.

Documentation and other appearances of EntireX Encryption (for example interfaces, configuration file) have been removed. Existing applications using EntireX Encryption are still supported at runtime for compatibility reasons.

Location Transparency

Support for Location Transparency was dropped in EntireX version 9.5 and has been removed from all major interfaces.

Publish and Subscribe

The EntireX Broker communication model Publish and Subscribe is no longer supported. You therefore need to remove the broker attribute PUBLISH-AND-SUBSCRIBE from your broker attribute file, otherwise error ETBE0023 Unknown attribute PUBLISH-AND-SUBSCRIBE is returned.

Broker Stub BKIMBTIA

As announced in EntireX Version 8.1 for BS2000, the stub BKIMBTIA is no longer delivered. Use the stub BROKER instead.

See also Consolidated Broker Stubs under What's New in Version 8.1 for BS2000 in the EntireX Version 8.1 SP2 Release Notes.

EntireX Broker Tutorial and Copybook NATDEF

The Natural-based EntireX Broker Tutorial is no longer provided. If you require the Broker control block definition NATDEF in your application, copy it from the documentation. See Broker ACI Control Block Data Area in the Broker ACI for Natural documentation.

Broker Attributes

The Broker attributes NET-RESTART, NET-RETRY-LIMIT and NET-RETRY-TIME are no longer supported.

Partner Broker ID

Partner Broker ID is no longer supported.

RPC Parameters

The complex parameter runoption is replaced by the new parameter marshalling, which is set by default to COBOL. Marshalling is used together with server mapping files (SVMs or CVMs). Parameters minworker, maxworker, endworker are replaced by new parameter workermodel. Parameter kernelsecurity is deprecated; the RPC server now provides logic to detect the security setup of the broker kernel automatically.

Features Currently not Supported under BS2000

  • Unsupported data types for C Wrapper
    The following IDL data types are not supported:

    • variable-length data types AV, BV, KV and UV

    • unbounded arrays