This document covers the following topics:
The following table lists available stubs and gives an overview of available features and supported transport methods.
| Stub | Language | Transport Methods | Compression | More Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| broker.dll * | C | TCP / SSL | Yes | See below. |
| Jaci | Java | TCP /SSL | Yes | See Java ACI. |
| (*) | Stub broker32.dll is still supported for reasons of backward compatibility. The functionality is identical to broker.dll. |
The Broker stub can use TCP/IP and Secure Sockets Layer.
To use TCP/IP
Optional: set the timeout, see Setting the Timeout for the Transport Method.
The Broker stub requires the IP address and the TCP port number (if the Broker's default TCP port number 1971 cannot be used) for each BROKER-ID. Either add an entry in the Domain Name System (DNS) or modify your local hosts and services tables. See Modifying the Hosts and Services Tables.
You can check whether the Broker has already been added to your DNS with the command:
ping <broker-id>
for example: ping ETB001. If a message such as "...is alive" or "Reply from ..." is displayed (the text displayed varies depending on your ping implementation), the name is known to your DNS and the host where the Broker is running is reachable. However, this does not necessarily mean that the Broker is active.
Note:
The SETSSLPARMS function must contain the subparameter
VERIFY_SERVER=N, unless the common name of the server certificate matches the
Broker name. Otherwise, the connection will be refused.
Example:
TRUST_STORE=C:\SoftwareAG\EntireX\ExxCACert.pem&VERIFY_SERVER=N
To use Secure Sockets Layer
To operate with Secure Sockets Layer, certificates need to be provided and maintained. Software AG provides default certificates, but we strongly recommend that you create your own, for example, with the OpenSSL toolkit. The certificates must be installed locally with the EntireX Broker Stub.
Set the value SSL as part of the Broker ID (see the field
BROKER-ID
in the ACI control block, see also Using the Broker ID in Applications) and set the SSL parameters (see Setting SSL or TLS Parameters).
Example: localhost:1958:SSL.
The SSL parameters can be specified with the FCT_SETSSLPARMS call type
for ACI programs, or they can be appended with a "?" to the broker
ID (Java stub).
The Broker stub requires the IP address and the SSL port number for each
BROKER-ID. Either add an entry to the Domain Name System (DNS) or modify your
local hosts and services tables. See Modifying the Hosts and Services Tables.
The default port number is 1958.
You can check whether the Broker has already been added to your DNS with the following command:
ping <broker-id>
for example: ping ETB001. If a message such as "...is alive" or "Reply from ..." is displayed (the text displayed varies depending on your ping implementation), the name is known to your DNS and the host where the Broker is running is reachable. However, this does not necessarily mean that the Broker is active.
Enter the SSL parameters as follows: <keyword>=<value>. Parameters are separated by "&".
Example code:
C:\SoftwareAG\EntireX\examples\ACI\conversational\C\convSvr -blocalhost:1958:SSL -cACLASS -sASERVER -vASERVICE -x "VERIFY_SERVER=N&TRUST_STORE=C:\SoftwareAG\EntireX\etc\ExxCACert.pem"
 |
Warning: If stub tracing level is > 1, unencrypted contents of the send/receive buffers are exposed in the trace. |
For information on the parameters see Running Broker with SSL or TLS Transport under z/OS | UNIX | Windows.
The timeout settings of the transport layers are independent of the
broker's timeout settings, which are set by the application in the
WAIT field of the broker ACI control block.
If the transport layer is interrupted, communication between the
Broker and the stub (i.e. client or server application) is interrupted as well.
To prevent a client from waiting for a Broker reply indefinitely, set a timeout
value for the transport method. The actual timeout for the procedure is then
the Broker timeout (which is set by the application in the field
WAIT (see Broker ACI Fields) plus this
value.
To set a transport timeout value
Set the environment variable ETB_TIMEOUT:
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Infinite wait for the application. |
| n | Transport method waits additional time in seconds. Negative
values are treated as ETB_TIMEOUT=0, i.e. infinite
wait.
|
| No environment variable defined | Transport method waits additional 20 seconds. |
With transport methods TCP/IP and SSL, the broker stub establishes one or more TCP/IP
connections to the brokers specified with BROKER-ID.
These connections can
be controlled by the transport-specific CONNECTION-NONACT attribute on the
broker side, but also by the transport-specific environment variable
ETB_NONACT on the stub side.
If ETB_NONACT is not 0, it defines the non-activity
time (in seconds) of active TCP/IP connections to any broker. See ETB_NONACT under Environment Variables in EntireX.
Whenever the broker stub is called, it checks for the elapsed non-activity time
and closes connections with a non-activity time greater than the value
defined with ETB_NONACT.
| Transport Non-activity Value | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Infinite lifetime until application is stopped. |
| n (seconds) | Transport connections with non-activity time greater than n will be closed. |
| Nothing set | Transport connections with non-activity time greater than 300s (default) will be closed. |
To add an entry to the hosts table
Add a line similar to the following to the local hosts file:
100.100.1.1 ETB226 # ETB test host name
To add an entry to the services table
Add lines similar to the following to the local services file:
ETB226 18492/tcp # ETB test host name ETB411 21234/tcp # ETB production host name
The broker stubs provide an option for writing trace files.
To switch on tracing for the broker stub
Before starting the client application, set the environment variable ETB_STUBLOG:
| Trace Value |
Trace Level | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | NONE |
No tracing. |
| 1 | STANDARD |
Traces initialization, errors, and all ACI request/reply strings. |
| 2 | ADVANCED |
Used primarily by system engineers, traces everything from level 1 and provides additional information - for example the Broker ACI control block - as well as transport information. |
| 3 | SUPPORT |
This is full tracing through the stub, including detailed traces of control blocks, message information, etc. |
Example:
ETB_STUBLOG=2If the trace level is greater than 1, unencrypted contents of the send/receive buffers may be exposed in the trace.
Trace output, file <thread-id>.etb, is written to the trace directory. The location of the trace file depends on the settings of environment variable %USERPROFILE%, for example:
C:\Documents And Settings\<UserName>\My Documents\Software AG\EntireX
See Trace Directory.
Remember to switch off tracing to prevent trace files from filling up your disk.
To switch off tracing for the broker stub
Set the environment variable ETB_STUBLOG to NONE or delete it.
EntireX Broker supports clustering in a high-availability scenario, using the environment variable ETB_SOCKETPOOL. See Environment Variables in EntireX. This section covers the following topics:
See also High Availability in EntireX.
A TCP/IP connection established between stub and broker is not exclusively assigned to a particular thread. With multithreaded applications, two or more threads may use the same connection. On the other hand, if a connection is busy, another new one is created to exchange data.
In order to access the same broker instance in a clustering environment, an affinity between application thread and TCP/IP connection is needed to always use the same connection within an application thread. Therefore, an environment variable is evaluated to control the handling of TCP/IP connections.
If environment variable ETB_SOCKETPOOL is set to "OFF" (ETB_SOCKETPOOL=OFF),
an affinity between threads and TCP/IP connections is established. All
requests to one particular broker will use the same TCP/IP connection.
ETB_SOCKETPOOL controls all TCP/IP connections.
Broker attribute CONNECTION-NONACT is used by the broker to close TCP/IP
connections after the elapsed non-activity time. Omit this attribute
to keep the TCP/IP connection alive.
ETB_SOCKETPOOL=ON is the default setting. In this case, an established
broker connection can be used by any thread if the connection is not busy.