What's New

This document covers the following topics:

Note:
This release of EntireX also contains a major rework for BS2000. The highlights for this platform are described separately under Enhanced BS2000 Support.

Increased Platform Support

EntireX now runs under the following additional platforms:

  • CentOS Linux 7 for x86-64

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 for Microsoft Azure

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016 for Microsoft Azure

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 for Microsoft Azure

See Platform Coverage for full list of supported platforms.

Installation

The installation package 'EntireX > Administration and Monitoring' under UNIX and Windows of earlier EntireX versions is now provided as a new installation node with the following three subpackages:

  • Application Monitoring Data Collector

  • Command-line Scripts

  • Mainframe Broker Monitoring

See EntireX Installation Packages in the General Installation documentation.

Designer Enhancements

Note:
The Designer was referred to as EntireX Workbench in earler EntireX versions.

EntireX Adapter Enhancements

  • REST Support
    The EntireX Adapter supports the generation of REST resources. See REST Support.

  • Integration Server Data Type Mapping
    The mapping from Integration Server data types to IDL data types has been enhanced. There are no more restrictions on the data types used in the Integration Server service. Data types which cannot be mapped to an IDL data type are either mapped to a string type or, if this is not possible, the parameter is ignored. See Integration Server Data Types to IDL Mapping.

  • CICS Socket Listener Connection
    The new connection type CICS Socket Listener Connection supports all CICS interface types: (DFHCOMMAREA, Channel Container and Large Buffer). CICS Socket Listener Connections use the CICS Socket Listener, a remote connector on z/OS and z/VSE to call CICS mainframe programs. See Preparing for CICS Socket Listener.

  • Direct Reliable RPC Listener Connection
    The new Direct Reliable Listener Connection type supports inbound reliable connections using the Direct RPC component. See Connection Parameters for Direct RPC and Direct Reliable RPC Listener Connections.

  • Listener enhancements
    When creating or updating a listener missing or necessary services are now generated automatically. See Creating and Updating Listeners.

  • Service to generate a RACF PassTicket
    With the new built-in service pub.wmentirex.RACFPassTicket:generate you can generate a RACF PassTicket. See Creating and Updating Listeners and Built-in Service to Generate a RACF PassTicket.

  • Support for the new product "Adabas Replication Service for webMethods Integration Server"
    The EntireX Adapter provides support for this product with two new connection types and additional screens in the Integration Server Administration Console. For details see the documentation of this product.

Security Enhancements

  • Long Broker Password Support
    The new ACI Version 12 of Broker supports long passwords and password phrases. The limitation to 32 bytes for password and new password in the ACI no longer applies.

    The security sample exits have been updated to reflect the handling with variable sized passwords. If you have implemented your own security exits you may need to adjust your exits according to the updated data layout.

  • Long RPC User ID/Password Support
    Long RPC user IDs and passwords are now supported.

  • RACF Password Phrases
    RACF password phrases are supported by EntireX Broker and RPC servers under z/OS running with impersonation. See Impersonation under CICS | Batch | IMS.

  • OpenSSL
    EntireX now uses OpenSSL 1.1.0 instead of OpenSSL 1.0.2. See changes to default values for SSL-specific broker attribute CIPHER-SUITE.

Licensing

  • License Check for RPC Servers
    All EntireX RPC servers under UNIX and Windows now check for a valid license file (see License Concept for webMethods EntireX.) If the license check fails, the server terminates initialization. A running EntireX RPC server re-checks the license daily (at 6am local time). If such a re-check fails, the server continues but prints a warning message to the log file.

Application Monitoring

  • The following connection types of the EntireX Adapter now support application monitoring:

    • AS/400 Connection

    • CICS Socket Listener Connection

  • All EntireX RPC servers now support application monitoring.

EntireX RPC Server for CICS Socket Listener for z/OS and z/VSE

  • The EntireX RPC Server for CICS Socket Listener allows standard RPC clients to communicate with CICS programs running on IBM CICS®. All CICS interface types are supported: (DFHCOMMAREA, Channel Container and Large Buffer).

  • This CICS Socket Listener functionality was also added in a fix for EntireX version 9.6 for z/VSE. See RPC Server for CICS Socket Listener.

    • The RPC server uses the CICS Socket Listener, a remote connector on z/OS and z/VSE to call CICS mainframe programs. See Preparing for CICS Socket Listener in the RPC Server for CICS Socket Listener documentation.

Command Central Enhancements

EntireX supports Command Central for EntireX Brokers running on mainframe platforms. You can perform the following operations:

  • monitor runtime status, KPIs (key performance indicators), and alerts of EntireX Broker instances

  • display services and server instances of a service

  • configure KPI monitoring

See Administering EntireX Components with Command Central for full list of operations supported by EntireX. General information is provided in the separate Command Central documentation and the Command Central Online Help.

COBOL Integration Enhancements

  • IDL unbounded groups and arrays without maximum (no upper bound) can now be used with COBOL RPC clients with COBOL 6 on z/OS. They are mapped to the COBOL OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause with the UNBOUNDED keyword.

  • In the COBOL Mapping Editor you can now map COBOL data items to IDL binary data. This allows you to access, for example, image data provided by a COBOL server. See Map to Binary and Revert Binary Mapping under CICS with DFHCOMMAREA Calling Convention - In same as Out in the IDL Extractor for COBOL documentation.

REST Support

EntireX now offers REST enablement for any EntireX Adapter connection. For more details see EntireX and REST.

See also the following scenarios:

Docker Support

EntireX provides two methods of building a Docker image and running the Docker container: using scripts provided by EntireX, or using Command Central. This functionality is available for the following components:

  • EntireX Broker

  • RPC Server for Java

  • RPC Server for XML/SOAP

See Building an EntireX Docker Image.

Documentation Enhancements

Other Changes and Enhancements

  • Enhanced USTATUS Handling
    By default, ACI request and response strings of USTATUS are now converted with ICU.

    See ACI-CONVERSION under Broker Attributes

    Note:
    This attribute was undocumented in earlier EntireX versions and had default value NO. This meant that a translation user exit was used instead; this is no longer recommended.