Help with SNA

l***@us.ibm.com

2007-03-28 10:53:38 UTC

Newsgroups: ibm.software.commserver.aix
Subject: Help with SNA
Date: 27 Mar 2007 23:09:14 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com
I'm working on a project with IBM Communications Server and I
was hoping to get some information about the product and SNA.
To give you background on my self I'm an AIX Support Engineer
who has been passed a project where they are replacing an iseries
to a pseries system.
I first off want to know with an installation of IBM Communications
Server (AIX) if I can create an LU to talk to 2 different applications
on the same system using CPI-C (Java). I want to try and setup a test
platform for a developer to work on so he can have an attempt at
writing some code that can take advantage of this library. At the
current time we do not have another system to connect the IBM
Communication server to.
Next if anyone is interested in posting some of the resources they
have used online. I have been reading through the IBM material but I
have found it hard to use the examples on my configuration. This is
The documentation that comes with IBM Communication server.
SNA APPN Architecture Reference
SNA Technical Overview
TX Series for multi platforms has a good SNA reference
If anyone could provide me with some information it would be
fantastic.

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To answer your first question:
Yes, every independent LU on CS/AIX is capable of being
used for a "U-shaped" session. That is one where the
local_lu and partner_lu are the same LU. A quick example
of doing this is:
snaadmin query_node | grep fqcp_name
aping NETID.CPNAME
where NETID.CPNAME is the CS/AIX's fqcp_name
That shows using the CS/AIX CP, which is also an LU, as
being the origin LU for the APING and the target LU of
the APINGD. If you have a compiler on your AIX box I
can post additional examples showing the same using the
/usr/lib/sna/samples/asample*.c and csample*.c.

There is a simple JavaCPI-C example in /usr/lib/sna/samples/JPing.*
and instructions for using it in the "CS/AIX CPI-C Programmer's
Guide" book. The JavaCPI-C API is currently 32bit only.
We do have JavaCPI-C support for a 64bit JRE, but it has
not been released in a CS/AIX PTF yet.

To extend that aping example, say you wanted to use two
separate LUs on CS/AIX, to more closely simulate the
final environment. To do that you could run commands like:
snaadmin define_local_lu, lu_alias=alias1, lu_name=LU1
snaadmin define_local_lu, lu_alias=alias2, lu_name=LU2
export APPCLLU=alias1
aping NETID.LU2

To answer your second question, I would also recommend the
CS/AIX manuals and RedBooks:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/network/commserver/aix/library/
A CS/AIX RedBook may be old, but the info is still valid.
The other books you listed are great for reference, but
won't have the AIX specifics. You said that the pSeries was
replacing an iSeries box, but you didn't say what the iSeries
was talking to now, e.g. z/OS on zSeries. When you get to
the point of having the pSeries talking to that remote you
may want to look at the VTAM manuals and the 'SNA Formats'
manual (GA27-3136) if you need to interpret traces.

Paul Landay