DATABridge Enterprise Version 6.0 Release Notes and New Features

Document ID:7021893
Creation Date:19-Dec-2008
Modified Date:31-Mar-2018
- Micro Focus Products:
  Databridge

Environment

DATABridge Enterprise Server version 6.0

Situation

This technical note includes important notices and new features in the DATABridge Enterprise for ClearPath PCs and Windows Servers version 6.0 (released December 2008).

Note the following:

For DATABridge Client version 6.0 Release Notes, see KB 7021892.
DATABridge 6.1 is available beginning in September 2010. See the DATABridge Documentation page (https://support.microfocus.com/manuals/databridge.html) on the Attachmate Support site for additional information about DATABridge 6.1, including links to New Features and Release Notes.

Resolution

Product Description

DATABridge Enterprise is a Windows-based implementation of most of the DATABridge host components. It offloads much of the replication workload from the Unisys mainframe to a PC.

Major Features

Single-pass audit record filtering and caching for an arbitrary number of filters, similar to the host program DBTanker.
Most of the services of the host programs DBServer and DBSupport.
DATABridge Clients use the same interface when connecting to DBEnterprise as when connecting to DBServer. DBEnterprise does not require any changes to the DATABridge Client.
Faster clones of datasets as compared to DBServer.
When DBEnterprise has direct access to MCP disks, e.g. Logical Disk or SAN disk, clones of datasets are even faster and use very little mainframe resources.

Release Contents

One CD image or one e-delivery package, which contains DATABridge host and client software products, and documentation for each product.

The DATABridge Enterprise installation utility is installed with all DATABridge host products. Existing customers on active maintenance are licensed for this module.

System Requirements

Any of the following systems:

A computer running Windows 2000, Windows 2003 server, Windows 2008 server, or Windows XP or Vista software
Optional access to MCP disks via a SAN (storage area network)
A ClearPath PC with MCP disks (VSS disks in MCP format) or Logical Disks

Important Notices

In the DATABridge manuals, Unisys MCP platforms are referred to using terms such as A-Series, ClearPath, NX/LX, Libra, CS, mainframe, and host. The current Unisys term, MCP Server, is the preferred term and will cover any current or future MCP-based Unisys system.
Changes to control icons and the user interface in the DBEnterprise application were made after the DATABridge Enterprise Server Administration Guide was finalized. Therefore the manual contains icons and controls that are not current.
An electronic version (.PDF format) of the DATABridge Enterprise Administrator's Guide is available on your DATABridge installation CD. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file. If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed, go to the Adobe Web site at www.adobe.com and download the free Acrobat Reader appropriate for your system. Once you have installed Acrobat Reader, go to the DOCS folder on your DATABridge installation CD and double-click the PDF.

DATABridge documentation is also available on the Attachmate Support site at https://support.microfocus.com/manuals/databridge.html.

Directory Structures

Starting in the 6.0 release, the Config and Logs folders (as well as the new Samples folder) are in a new location.

For Windows 2000, 2003, and XP, the Config, Logs, and Samples folders are in

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Attachmate\DATABridge\Enterprise

For Windows 2008 & Vista, the Config, Logs,and Samples folders are in

C:\ProgramData\Attachmate\DATABridge\Enterprise

The default program folder is

C:\Program Files\Attachmate\DATABridge\6.0\Enterprise

Installation

Log on as a user with Administrator privileges. If you attempt to run setup without Administrator privileges you will get an error.
Disable any software firewall during installation.

Existing DBEnterprise installations: Un-install the existing DBEnterprise application. Note that the Version 6.0 installation will ‘Migrate’ all existing settings and SOURCES into the new directory structure and application. Make sure you specify the ‘Port’ used by previous installation. (The new default is 6000).

Run the Setup.exe program.
After accepting the license agreement and selecting directories and the port number, choose the type of installation. "Typical" will use the defaults shown in the description. Choose "Custom" if you want to select which features to install.
The setup program will install and start the DBDirector service, which will listen for incoming connections from DATABridge clients. It will also create a DATABridge program folder in the Start menu that contains shortcuts for configuring a source, viewing the configuration directory, and viewing the log files directory.
Change your firewall to allow DBDirector and the port number you specified.
You do not need to reboot the PC.

Operation

The following steps assume that you have already installed the DATABridge host software on the Unisys mainframe computer.

Make sure the DBServer parameter file on the mainframe contains one or more SOURCE declarations that you want DBEnterprise to use.
Click on the "DATABridge Enterprise" icon in the DATABridge | Enterprise program folder on the Start menu.
Click the DBServer button. Type in the hostname of the Unisys mainframe computer where DBServer is running. Also enter the tcp/ip port number DBServer is using. Click OK. The hostname should appear in the tree on the lefthand side.
Click the plus (+) button in front of the hostname. The tree should expand to show the DBServer port number. Click the plus button in front of the DBServer branch to list the defined sources.
Right-click on the name of the source you would like to make available through DBEnterprise and click "Add to DBEnterprise" on the context menu.
The new source should appear in the DBEnterprise tree.
Right-click the name of the new source to view (and change) its properties.
You can create additional DBEnterprise sources similarly.
Click the OK button.
DBEnterprise will connect to the mainframe and create the .source and .filter files in the DATABridge configuration directory describing the sources.
If any of the SOURCEs is cached, i.e. you specified a directory for it, you can tell DBEnterprise to start caching audit files with the CACHE command. For example, at the command prompt,

DBEnterprise cache bankdb

Bankdb in the example above is the name of the remote source.

Or, in browse mode you can right-click on a base source in the right-hand tree and click on "Start caching updates."

Point a DATABridge client to DBEnterprise by doing a "dbutility define" with the hostname or ip address of the PC and the port number you chose during DBEnterprise setup.
Use the DATABridge client as normal.

Notes:

When DATABridge client requests a clone of one or more datasets, DBEnterprise will look for MCP disks that it can access directly. These disks could be Logical Disk, which are normal files on a Windows disk, or VSS disks, which are dedicated drives in MCP format. DBEnterprise must be running with Administrator privileges in order to access VSS disks directly. If it is unable to read a disk directly, DBEnterprise will use large chunks of data from DBServer to clone the dataset(s).

All cases of direct access to disks are strictly read-only. DBEnterprise never writes to any MCP disks.

DBEnterprise creates log files having a name depending on the function it is performing as follows.

Loading a configuration file:

DBEnterprise (<configfilename>) <datetime>.log

where <configfilename> is the name of the DBEnterprise configuration file.

Serving a DATABridge client

<clienttype> DBEnterprise (<ipaddress>) <datetime>.log

where <ipaddress> is the ip address of the DATABridge client computer.

Caching updates:

Cacher (<remotesourcename>) <datetime>.log

where <remotesourcename> is the name of the SOURCE on the remote system.

Browse mode:

Browser <datetime>.log

The end of DBEnterprise server log contains statistics indicating the counts and time spent performing various activities.

The DBDirector program, which listens for DATABridge client connection requests, writes its log information to the Windows Application Log. Use the Windows Event Viewer to read that information.

Enumerating Disks

The Start menu DBEnterprise folder will contain an icon for enumerating MCP disks. The EnumDisk program will write a log file called:

EnumerateDisks (<localhost>) <datetime>.log

listing the physical MCP disks that are visible to DBEnterprise and can be used for Direct disk cloning and audit file reading.

New Features and Important Changes Since the Last Release

The cache command can now specify an Afn range to indicate where caching should start and stop. Syntax:

CACHE remotesourcename [startafn [ [ - ] endafn | + ] ]

If only the startafn is specified, only that file will be cached.

Examples:

cache bankdb 460 % only 460
cache bankdb 460 - 488 % beginning of 460 through end of 488
cache bankdb 460 + % beginning of 460 to end of audit

When displaying the log file, DBEnterprise will now use the program associated with the .log file extension. Previously it always used NotePad.exe.

In order to reduce overhead, DBEnterprise will update the dialog showing "KBytes" and "Updates" about twice a second rather than every 256 updates.

DBEnterprise now supports FileXtract functionality. You create a DBEnterprise source based on a DBServer (FileXtract) source in the usual way. The DBServer source should have a READER ... USING ... declaration.

If DBEnterprise finds a <sourcename>.dll in its program directory containing an exported function called FileReader, it will call that function rather than reading a DMSII audit trail to retrieve updates. The function must have the following prototype.

   DBM     FileReader
                        (
                        CTranInfo *             pTranInfo,
                        CSourceHandler *        pSource,
                        CHostFile *             pHostFile,
                        ERRORCB *               pMakeErrorMsg
                        );

The sample program DBSourceSupport has a FileReader for LINC Log files. See the source code for additional information.

Retrieving the directory name in the READER ... USING ... declaration requires a new RPC supported in DBServer 52.524.0023 or later.

The DBDirector properties dialog now has an option for determining if the DBEnterprise replication dialog should be displayed or not when a client connects. Currently there are 3 choices:
- Hide - the dialog will not appear and DBEnterprise will not show the log automatically when it finishes.
- Minimize - the dialog will immediately be minimized but can be restored by clicking on it in the taskbar.
- Normal - the dialog will be displayed normally.

This patch requires DBDirector 52.524.0005 or later.

DBEnterprise will now honor the STOP limits declared in the DBServer parameter file. Any STOP limits the client provides will override the DBServer limits.

Also, in some cases the audit location timestamp sent to the client didn't always exactly match the one sent by DBServer in the same situation. This has been corrected.

The algorithm for estimating the last quiet point of an audit file has been improved.

This patch requires DBServer 52.524.0031 or later.

If the "Disconnect from server" context menu item is selected DBEnterprise will now remove the list of source items displayed under that server. Clicking on the "+" in front of the server will reconnect to the server and list the source items.

DBEnterprise Libraries

DBEnterprise can now use user-written libraries to perform many of the reformatting and transform functions that previously required ALGOL procedures running on the MCP Server. The ALTER and TRANSFORM declarations in DBGenFormat require these procedures.
Typically, if the ALTER and TRANSFORM declarations do not require access to a database or file on the MCP Server, then DBEnterprise can call a user-written dynamic link library (dll) to accomplish the same reformatting and reduce the MCP Server resource utilization.
DBEnterprise can also call user-written libraries to provide FileXtract functionality, which would again reduce MCP Server resource utilization. The Samples\LINCLOG subfolder contains all of the source code and project settings for building a FileXtract LINCLOG Reader dll. When such a dll is available to DBEnterprise, the MCP Server will not use the equivalent ALGOL-based LINCLOG Reader.
The Enterprise\Support subfolder in the program folder contains C++ header files and a code library (DBEUser.lib) that provide useful DBEnterprise functions. You can use these functions to simplify writing a library for reformatting, transforming, and FileXtract functionality.
Sample reformatting and/or transforming libraries are available upon request. Note that the DataItem.h and DataItem.cpp files in Samples\LINCLOG provide useful routines for accessing and updating individual data items.
After building the library copy it as <sourcename>(<updatelevel>).dll in the subdirectory containing DBEnterprise.exe. You can also copy it as <sourcename>.dll if you don’t want to keep separate versions for each update level.
When DBEnterprise first links to a user-written library it calls an initialization function in the library. If the initialization function returns an error code signifying the library needs to be recompiled, DBEnterprise will automatically recompile it using the MakeUserLib.cmd batch file in the DBEnterprise program folder. This mechanism mirrors the MCP Server capability and ensures that the user library will always be current. See the batch file for additional information and customization directions.

Additional Information

The DATABridge Product Profile, which includes system requirements, can be viewed at https://docs.attachmate.com/databridge/6.2/050125_DATABridge_PP.pdf.

DATABridge documentation is also available on the Attachmate Support site at https://support.microfocus.com/manuals/databridge.html.

Legacy KB ID

This document was originally published as Attachmate Technical Note 2403.