NAS FOR CICS

Version 4.1 Release Notes

Updated February 9, 2000

Summary

These release notes detail the known problems and changes between NAS for CICS 4.0 and NAS for CICS 4.1. In addition to the topics covered in this document, there are four Adobe Acrobat (pdf) files which include rewrites of parts of the documentation. The following list of documents were prepared to be used in conjunction with NAS for CICS Installation Guide and Developer's Handbook that comes with the product:

Support for TCP/IP and SNA (APPC) Protocols NAS for CICS 4.1 now includes installation and configuration for SNA (APPC). These details are incorporated in instructions for installation on NT and the LU6.2 configuration.

Mainframe Component Installation This document replaces Chapter 2 of the NAS for CICS Installation Guide. You should use this document in its place.

4.1 Changes to the Developer's Handbook This includes all corrections made to the Developer's Handbook. The information is arranged in reference to the chapter to which it applies.

Support for NAS on Solaris This includes the full installation of NAS on the Sun Solaris workstation.

Installation and Configuration


This is a 2 phase installation. First you must install NAS components on the server machine. After this is complete, you must install the mainframe components.

To install NAS for CICS:

1. Install all NAS components on your application server machine by doing the following:

  • on NT, run setup.exe from the nt4.0/nas4cics directory
  • on a Solaris, unzip the file in the solaris/nas4cics directory and execute setup on the command line.

    2. Install mainframe components on your mainframe as follows:

  • Locate the mainframe components in the directory:<yourNASdirectory>/APPS/adapters/cics/backend
  • Follow instructions provided in the Mainframe Component Installation in your doc directory.

To install NAS and NAS for CICS at the same time:

If you install NAS and NAS for CICS at the same time using the NAS for CICS installer, your LDAP tables are not set up correctly. To install correctly, you must run the installer twice, as follows.

  1. When installing NAS for the first time, deselect 'NAS for CICS 4.0' in the 'Select Products' dialog box and leave all others selected.
     
  2. Install until completion.

    The installer prompts you to reboot your system.
     
  3. After rebooting, run setup.exe again.

    In the Select Products dialog box, NAS for CICS 4.0 is selected.
     
  4. Install until completion, then reboot again.

Installing NAB and NAS for CICS

To install this configuration correctly, you must install in the following order. Again, remember to reboot after each installation completes.

To install NAB and NAS for CICS:

  1. Install NAS.
     
  2. Install NAS for CICS.
     
  3. Install NAB.

NT Installation Errata

The note on page 8 and the screen picture on page 13 of the Installation Guide should indicate that NAS for CICS requires sixteen (16) megabytes of disk space; not twelve (12).

To uninstall NAS for CICS on NT:

  1. Follow the instructions on pages 18 -19 in the Installation Guide.

  2. Start the NASA console from your program menu's Netscape Server family - Netscape Console 4.0 entry.
  3. Navigate to your-host-name - your-domain-name - Server Group - Directory Server.
  4. Highlight the Directory Server icon.
  5. Click Open in the right panel.

  6. A new window appears.
  7. Select the Directory tab.
  8. Navigate to Netscape Root\ yourDomainName\ Global Preferences\ Admin - 4.0 \topologyplugin.
  9. Click on "topologyplugin" in right panel.
  10. Right-click on CICS "topologyplugin" in the pop-up menu.
  11. Select Delete.

EXCEPTION MANAGEMENT AND LOGGING

The exception and logging mechanism provides the following functionality:

Only one generic BSP exception message is ever thrown. The exception messages that are thrown are in relation to data object API or the adapter errors. The programmer does not have to handle exceptions since the BspException extends java.lang.RuntimeException. This makes it safe for the application programmer to skip writing their own special error-handling code.

TRACING THE ADAPTER

The CICS.ini file contains the variable SRVND_DBG=FALSE.

The CICS.ini file must be in the same directory where the services, kcs, kjs, and so on, are started: <root>\Netscape\server4\nas 

To activate the trace file for the adapter set the variable SRVND_DBG=TRUE. The file CICS.log is then created. 

 

DOCUMENTATION

Consult your docs directory to find all the product documentation, including the NAS for CICs 4.0 documentation the more current NAS for CICs 4.1 documentation. These include :


Important: Chapter 2 of the Installation Guide (NASCICSInstall.pdf) has been replaced by the Mainframe Component Installation guide that is included with NAS for CICs 4.1.


The docs folder also contains a NAS folder. In the NAS folder you'll find all of the NAS 4.0 documentation in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

KNOWN PROBLEMS

Array Element Type Enforcement Arrays are used to store elements of the same type; however, homogeneity is only enforced if you use the addElem() method to add elements to arrays. You should use the addElem() method and not methods in the IBSPDataObjectList interface to add elements to arrays.

Duplicate Repository Nodes Duplicate repository nodes are not allowed; however, this restriction is not enforced. If you have a duplicate node, the behavior of the Repository Browser is unpredictable; for example, the browser may not refresh properly. You may also experience an error if your XML file contains a duplicate node. This stops when you correct the error and reimport.

BSP Access Interrupted Running GX.Release() on IBSPRuntime object, in 4.1 CICS for NAS, interrupts access to BSP. The solution is to not run GX.Release () on an IBSPRuntime object.

BSP Runtime Connection Pool Exhausted Applications must call disable() on an IBSPServiceProvider before exiting an EJB or servlet. If disable() is not called, the CICS transaction stays alive until it is timed out with the possible result being that the connection pool could be exhausted.

Correct Conversation Type When NAS uses the APPC protocol, the value of the ConversationType must be:  DIRECT  This is critical.

createInstance() The createinstance() method described on page 138 of the Developer's Handbook creates an instance of an IBSPDataObject object (not an instance of IBSPDataObjectInfo).

Directory Server Hostname Prompt in Solaris Installer While installing on Solaris, the installer prompt: Enter the Directory Server Identifier, should be changed to: Enter the Directory Server Host Name.

HTTP Port Missing in Sample URL The Program menu link to the Samples page assumes the web server is running on standard http port 80. If this is not the case, the link fails. Manually insert your port number in the url location on the web browser and the page appears.

Log file too large The CICS adapter's data source XML file (sample, as well as template) should set the pooling debugLevel=0. The administrator can change this level using kregedit if more information is needed.

Management Console on Solaris The CICS Management Console, which is plugged into the Netscape Console must be started using startconsole.sh instead of startconsole. You find startconsole.sh in the root server directory (.../server4)

Solaris Installer When write access to certain files, which the Solaris installer creates in the /tmp directory is denied, the Solaris installer fails. The files in /tmp are:

The solution is to change user to root and manually remove the files from /tmp.

Solaris Installer not Recognizing the Application Server If NAS is not installed under the specified server root directory and you choose to install only the NAS for CICS 4.1 component, you get this error message:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR: BSP depends on Netscape Server Family Core Components to be
installed. Select Netscape Server Family Core Components.

Press any key to continue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

If you encounter this error message, hit CTRL-B twice to go back to the previous two screens.


TelcoSample Can't Find Starting Page When running the TelcoSample project from Netscape Application Builder, it complains that it can't find the starting page of the TelcoSample. You can fix this by adding the following lines to the .gxm file and recompiling the project:

TreeLevel=0
Filename=index.html
IsDir=false
FileType=HTML Page
Source=http
RelToSrcPath=cicsSamples/index.html
Destination=http
RelToDestPath=cicsSamples/index.html

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