The EntireX CICS® ECI RPC Server allows standard RPC clients to communicate with CICS programs running on IBM CICS® version 3.2 and higher. The CICS ECI RPC Server transforms the RPCs from the clients into messages to CICS ECI. The CICS ECI RPC Server acts on one side as an RPC server and on the other side as a client for CICS ECI. The CICS ECI RPC Server is a Java-based component that can run on a different host to the one where CICS is running. This allows it to operate with a zero footprint of EntireX on the CICS host.
This document covers the following topics:
For the setup of the CICS ECI RPC Server there are
a configuration file and
scripts to start the CICS ECI RPC Server.
The CICS ECI RPC Server is contained in the file entirex.jar.
The default name of the configuration file is entirex.cicseci.properties. The CICS ECI RPC Server searches for this file in the current working directory.
You can set the name of the configuration file with
-Dentirex.server.properties=<your file
name> with "/" as file separator.
The configuration file contains the configuration for both parts of the CICS ECI RPC Server.
To set up the CICS ECI RPC Server
Use the RPC server agent of the System Management Hub.
Add the CICS ECI RPC Server as an RPC server.
See Administering the EntireX RPC Servers using System Management Hub under UNIX | Windows for details.
Or:
Use the scripts to start the CICS ECI RPC Server.
Both scripts use the configuration file entirex.cicseci.properties in the folder etc.
If you configure more than one CICS ECI RPC Server that connect to the same broker, the following items must be distinct:
the trace output file (property
entirex.server.logfile)
the monitor port for SMH (property
entirex.server.monitorport)
the log for the Windows Service (property
entirex.server.serverlog)
the trace output file of the SMH agent for RPC servers
The RPC server side of the CICS ECI RPC Server is configured like the Java RPC Server. The CICS ECI RPC Server uses the properties that start with "entirex.server".
The RPC server side can adjust the number of worker threads to the number
of parallel requests. Use the properties
entirex.server.fixedservers,
entirex.server.maxservers and
entirex.server.minservers to configure this
scalability.
If entirex.server.fixedservers=yes, the
number of entirex.server.minservers is started and
the server can process this number of parallel requests.
If entirex.server.fixedservers=no, the
number of worker threads balances between
entirex.server.minservers and
entirex.server.maxservers. This is done by a
so-called attach server thread. On startup, the number of worker threads is
entirex.server.minservers.
If more than entirex.server.minservers are
waiting for requests, a worker thread stops if its receive call times out. The
timeout period is configured with
entirex.server.waitserver.
Alternatively to the properties, you can use the command-line option. The command-line options have a higher priority than the properties set as Java system properties and these have higher priority than the properties in the configuration file.
| Name | Command-line Option | Default Value | Explanation | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
entirex.bridge.verbose |
no |
Verbose/trace mode of CICS ECI RPC Server. Set this to
"yes" to trace sent to CICS ECI.
|
|||||||||||||||
entirex.server.brokerid |
-broker |
localhost |
Broker ID. See URL-style Broker ID. | ||||||||||||||
entirex.server.serveraddress |
-server |
RPC/SRV1/CALLNAT |
Server address. | ||||||||||||||
entirex.server.userid |
-user |
CICSECIRPCServer |
The user ID for the Broker for RPC. See entirex.server.password.
|
||||||||||||||
entirex.server.fixedservers |
no |
|
|||||||||||||||
entirex.server.minservers |
1 |
Minimum number of server threads. | |||||||||||||||
entirex.server.maxservers |
32 |
Maximum number of server threads. | |||||||||||||||
entirex.server.restartcycles |
-restartcycles |
15 |
Number of restart attempts if the Broker is not available. This can be used to keep the CICS ECI RPC Server running while the Broker is down for a short time. | ||||||||||||||
entirex.server.password |
-password |
The password for secured access to the Broker. The password is encrypted and written to the property entirex.server.password.e. To change the password, set the new password in the properties file (default is entirex.cicseci.properties). To disable password encryption set entirex.server.passwordencrypt=no. Default for
this property is "yes".
|
|||||||||||||||
entirex.server.security |
-security |
no |
no|yes|auto|name of BrokerSecurity
object
|
||||||||||||||
entirex.server.encryptionlevel |
0 |
Deprecated. For encrypted transport we strongly recommend using the Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security protocol. See SSL/TLS and Certificates with EntireX. | |||||||||||||||
entirex.server.compresslevel |
-compresslevel |
0 |
Permitted values (you can enter the text or the numeric value)
|
||||||||||||||
entirex.server.waitattach |
600S |
Wait timeout for the attach server thread. | |||||||||||||||
entirex.server.waitserver |
300S |
Wait timeout for the worker threads. | |||||||||||||||
entirex.timeout |
20 |
TCP/IP transport timeout. See Setting the Transport Timeout under Writing Advanced Applications - EntireX Java ACI. | |||||||||||||||
entirex.server.verbose |
-verbose |
no |
Enable verbose output to the log file. | ||||||||||||||
entirex.server.logfile |
-logfile |
Name of the log file, default is standard output. | |||||||||||||||
entirex.trace |
-trace |
0 |
Trace level (1,2,3). | ||||||||||||||
entirex.server.monitorport |
-smhport |
0 |
The port where the server listens for commands from the System Management Hub (SMH). If this port is 0, no port is used and management by the SMH is disabled. |
These properties are used to configure the connection to CICS ECI.
Alternatively, you can use the command-line options. These have a higher priority than the properties set as Java system properties, and these have higher priority than the properties in the configuration file.
| Name | Default Value | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
cics.host |
Host name of CICS ECI. Mandatory. | |
cics.port |
Port number of CICS ECI. Mandatory. | |
cics.transaction |
Name of the CICS mirror transaction that will receive transactions. Mandatory. | |
entirex.bridge.targetencoding |
cp037 |
Specify the appropriate EBCDIC encoding used by your CICS ECI.
This codepage is also used when communicating with the EntireX Broker.
Note: Default " |
cics.sockettimeout |
10000 |
Socket timeout for connection to CICS ECI (in milliseconds). |
cics.userid |
RACF user ID. Maximum 8 bytes (optional). | |
cics.password |
RACF password/PassTicket. Maximum 8 bytes (optional). | |
cics.sslparams |
SSL parameters (optional). Same syntax as Broker ID. | |
cics.mapping.folder |
The folder where the RPC server expects server-side mapping files
(EntireX Workbench files with extension .svm).
See Deploying Server-side Mapping Files to the RPC Server and Undeploying Server-side Mapping Files from the RPC Server.
There are also client-side mapping files that do not require configuration here. See Server Mapping Files for COBOL. If no server requires server-side mapping, you can omit this property. If one server requires server-side mapping, this property must be specified. |
To use SSL with the CICS ECI RPC Server, you need to configure two sides:
CICS ECI Side
See parameter cics.sslparams under Configuring the CICS ECI Side.
RPC Server Side
RPC servers can use Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) as the transport medium.
The term "SSL" in this section refers to both SSL and TLS.
RPC-based servers are always SSL clients. The SSL server can be either the EntireX Broker or Broker SSL Agent. For an introduction
see SSL/TLS and Certificates in the Security documentation.
To use SSL
To operate with SSL, certificates need to be provided and maintained. Depending on the platform, Software AG provides default certificates, but we strongly recommend that you create your own. See Default Certificates Delivered with EntireX under SSL/TLS and Certificates with EntireX in the Security documentation.
Set up the CICS ECI RPC Server for an SSL connection.
Use the URL-style Broker ID with protocol ssl:// for the Broker ID. If no port number is specified, port 1958 is used as default. Example:
ssl://localhost:22101?trust_store=C:\SoftwareAG\EntireX\etc\ExxCACert.jks&verify_server=no
If the SSL client checks the validity of the SSL server only, this is known as one-way SSL. The mandatory trust_store parameter
specifies the file name of a keystore that must contain the list of trusted certificate authorities for the certificate of
the SSL server.
By default a check is made that the certificate of the SSL server is issued for the hostname specified in the Broker ID.
The common name of the subject entry in the server's certificate is checked against the hostname. If they do not match, the
connection will be refused.
You can disable this check with SSL parameter verify_server=no.
If the SSL server additionally checks the identity of the SSL client, this is known as two-way SSL. In this case the SSL server requests a client certificate
(the parameter verify_client=yes is defined in the configuration of the SSL server).
Two additional SSL parameters must be specified on the SSL client side: key_store and key_passwd.
This keystore must contain the private key of the SSL client. The password that protects the private key is specified with
key_passwd.
The ampersand (&) character cannot appear in the password.
SSL parameters are separated by ampersand (&). See also SSL/TLS Parameters for EntireX Clients and Servers.
Make sure the SSL server to which the RPC side connects is prepared for SSL connections as well. The SSL server can be EntireX Broker or Broker SSL Agent. See:
To start the CICS ECI RPC Server
Use the script cicseciserver in the folder bin to start the CICS ECI RPC Server. You may customize this file.
Or:
Use the RPC server agent in the System Management Hub to
configure and start the CICS ECI RPC Server.
See Administering the EntireX RPC Servers using System Management Hub under UNIX | Windows for details.
To stop the CICS ECI RPC Server
Use the RPC server agent in the SMH to stop the CICS ECI RPC Server.
Or:
Use the agent for the Broker. Use
Deregister on the service, specified with the
property entirex.server.serveraddress.
The application identification is sent from the CICS ECI RPC Server to the Broker. It is visible with Broker Command and Information Services.
The identification consists of four parts: name, node, type, and version. These four parts are sent with each Broker call and are visible in the trace information.
For the CICS ECI RPC Server, these values are:
| Identification Part | Value |
|---|---|
| Application name | ANAME=CICS ECI RPC Server |
| Node name | ANODE=<host name> |
| Application type | ATYPE=Java |
| Version | AVERS=9.9.0.0 |