DIGITAL Software Product Description ___________________________________________________________________ PRODUCT NAME: Reliable Transaction Router Version 2.2D SPD 51.04.04 for OpenVMS Alpha DESCRIPTION Reliable Transaction Router Version 2.2D for OpenVMS Alpha can be li- censed for either full function operation or to work only as a client. It is a reliable, transparent message routing system that includes both a transactional and a nontransactional message control system. Reli- able Transaction Router implements automatic software fault tolerance and failure recovery on the OpenVMS Operating System by adapting to hardware (CPU), communications, and application software failures. Re- liable Transaction Router provides users with the ability to easily partition multiple application programs over DECnet local area net- works (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Ease of development fea- tures include both a Requester (Client)/Server design environment, with optional all-or-nothing transaction semantics, as well as a message broadcasting capability. Reliable Transaction Router implements vir- tual, rather than physical networks, which provide the application de- veloper with a "single view" of a distributed client/server environ- ment. This technique allows the application software to be indepen- dent of physical hardware (CPU) location, network naming conventions, and communications protocol. Reliable Transaction Router Version 2.2D for OpenVMS Alpha is fully compatible and interoperable with Reliable Transaction Router Version 2.2D for OpenVMS VAX. Reliable Transaction Router Version 2.2D appli- cations developed on OpenVMS Alpha can be recompiled for execution on OpenVMS VAX. Reliable Transaction Router Version 2.2D applications can be deployed in networks and VMScluster systems containing a combina- tion of VAX and Alpha nodes. Reliable Transaction Router Version 2.2D January 1996 AE-Q3B3E-TE for OpenVMS Alpha is also backward compatible with Reliable Transac- tion Router Version 2.x for OpenVMS Alpha (note: this does not apply to monitoring of remote nodes). Reliable Transaction Router is implemented by providing the program- mer with eight system services to develop distributed applications. This call interface conforms to the OpenVMS calling standard. The Reliable Transaction Router call interface functions are also made available at the Digital Command Language (DCL) level in both their synchronous and asynchronous forms. Reliable Transaction Router provides application software fault tol- erant features such as shadow-server processing, standby-server pro- cessing, and call-out servers to implement user authentication con- trol, as well as concurrent servers with dynamic message load balanc- ing for high performance. The high performance transactional messag- ing is implemented as a full-duplex, conversational remote procedure call (RPC) using real-time flow control techniques. These features gen- erally require no special user application programming logic. The System Management interface allows the dynamic creation, deletion, modification, and monitoring of multiple, independent virtual networks within a network. In addition, the monitoring utility can be invoked from any system, with suitable privileges, to gather and report dis- tributed application performance statistics. The Reliable Transaction Router System Management interface is used to bind the physical hard- ware (CPU and communications) to a virtual network namespace and is completely transparent to the application software. Several levels of physical and logical security can be controlled via the System Man- agement interface. Additional security is provided at runtime through the Reliable Transaction Router call interface. Reliable Transaction Router is both forms/window management systems and database independent. Application server features allow transaction- consistent access to Digital and non-Digital database products within the same networkwide distributed transaction. 2 Reliable Transaction Router is primarily intended for production sys- tems in large distributed environments that require frontend forms in- dependence and backend server database independence (e.g., trading/money dealing systems, telecommunications systems, and so forth). Reliable Transaction Router can also be used in general distributed systems that require reliable messaging and fault tolerant application control over LANs and/or WANs. Reliable Transaction Router provides the enabling technology for applications requiring fully distributed client/server models rather than a distributed database model. Full Function Features o Provides transparent, content-based transaction routing for client /server applications in a distributed system. o Provides nontransaction based routing (broadcasts) for up to 32 sub- scription domains within a virtual network. Subscription is based on alphanumeric names within a flexible addressing scheme that in- cludes wildcarding. o Allows user-defined partitioned data models (content-based rout- ing) for improved performance of user applications in a LAN and/or WAN. o Acts as a layer between the application requesters and servers thus decoupling the end-to-end relationship normally required by user application control. This provides the application developer with a "single" system view of the programming environment over multi- ple hardware systems located on a LAN and/or WAN. o Ensures atomicity of transactions (all or nothing) by using a two- phase commit protocol to guarantee conversational message deliv- ery among one or more application servers. o Offers at-most-once semantics for valid transactions. This includes specially flagged transaction replay to a surviving application server, or a later instantiation of that server on the same or a differ- ent machine on the virtual network. In addition, DECdtm support is provided for use with resource managers supported by DECdtm. When 3 the DECdtm option is invoked by the application program, the ap- plication programmer is not required to be aware of transaction re- plays, since Reliable Transaction Router coordinates this directly through DECdtm and the participating resource managers. o Provides disaster protection and recovery (e.g., site failure) au- tomatically by mirroring transactions in shadow-server environments. o Supports multiple (concurrent) servers as well as multithreaded re- questers and/or servers. o Maintains near-linear performance scaling over a wide range of con- figurations allowing easy horizontal expansion of both hardware sys- tems and application software. o Enables transparent and automatic failover/failback of application servers on multiple backend systems within a VMScluster while re- maining transparent to application requesters executing on remote frontend system(s). Reliable Transaction Router can maintain ap- plication operation in many instances of single or multiple fail- ure modes in a widely distributed software/hardware configuration. o Includes system management utilities for online monitoring and sys- tem control of virtual networks from any workstation or terminal with the appropriate privileges. This feature includes the moni- toring of statistics, software and hardware states, requesters/servers, and system manager control of distributed Reliable Transaction Router applications. o Provides a synchronous as well as asynchronous DCL interface to all Reliable Transaction Router system services. This feature is in- tended to facilitate application prototyping and debugging. o Uses DECnet as the underlying transport for the virtual network. o Supports the connection of a number of remote client products with the remote client handler feature. These remote client products im- plement a subset of the Reliable Transaction Router architecture. Connection to these types of clients is available using DECnet and /or TCP/IP. The remote client handler acts as a gateway between the remote client application and the application server on the vir- tual network. 4 Client Features o Provides the necessary environment to run Reliable Transaction Router client applications under OpenVMS as part of an Reliable Transac- tion Router virtual network. o Supports full automatic failover to another router in the event of communications link failure. o Supports all OpenVMS calling methods (asynchronous and synchronous) and DCL interfaces. o Supports transactional and nontransactional (broadcast) messages. o Supports all Reliable Transaction Router system management oper- ations. o Uses DECnet as the underlying transport for the virtual network. o Supports the remote client handler for DECnet and TCP/IP connec- tions. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS Processors Supported Alpha: DEC 2000 Model 300, DEC 2000 Model 500, Digital 2100 Model A500MP, Digital 2100 Model A600MP, 5 DEC 3000 Model 300, DEC 3000 Model 300L, DEC 3000 Model 300LX, DEC 3000 Model 400, DEC 3000 Model 400S, DEC 3000 Model 500, DEC 3000 Model 500S, DEC 3000 Model 500X, DEC 3000 Model 600, DEC 3000 Model 600S, DEC 3000 Model 700, DEC 3000 Model 800, DEC 3000 Model 800S DEC 3000 Model 900 DEC 4000 Model 600, DEC 4000 Model 700 Series DEC 7000 Model 600 Series DEC 10000 Model 600 Series AlphaStation 200, 250 AlphaServer 400, 1000, 2000, 2100, 8200, 8400 Disk Space Requirements Disk space required for 40,000 blocks installation: (20 MB) Disk space required for 24,000 blocks use (permanent): (12 MB) 6 These counts refer to the disk space required on the system disk. The sizes are approximate; actual sizes may vary depending on the user's system environment, configuration, and software options. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS o OpenVMS Alpha Operating System Version 6.1 or higher. o DECnet/OSI for OpenVMS Alpha Version 6.1 (note that Reliable Trans- action Router support of DECnet/OSI is provided through use of syn- onyms, but does not include longname support). OPTIONAL SOFTWARE o This layered product is fully supported when installed on any valid and licensed VMScluster configuration. o The following Remote Client products are supported by this prod- uct: - Reliable Transaction Router Client Version 1.1 for DOS and Win- dows[TM] - Reliable Transaction Router for ULTRIX V1.0-1 o Nodes running Reliable Transaction Router V2.2D for OpenVMS Alpha can exchange messages and interoperate with nodes running Reliable Transaction Router V3.1 for Digital UNIX[R], which are configured within the same Reliable Transaction Router virtual network. Con- figuration guidelines and restrictions are provided with the Re- lease Notes for Reliable Transaction Router Version 3.1 for Dig- ital UNIX. o DECADMIRE for OpenVMS supports rapid application development of Re- liable Transaction Router applications. 7 o Optional software commonly used in developing and deploying Reli- able Transaction Router applications includes programming languages such as C, and database software such as Rdb, DBMS, or other database software offered by third-party software vendors such as Oracle[R] Corporation. GROWTH CONSIDERATIONS The minimum hardware and software requirements for any future version of this product may be different from the requirements for the cur- rent version. DISTRIBUTION MEDIA This software and documentation are available on the Digital CD-ROM Software Library for OpenVMS Alpha. The software documentation is also available in hard-copy format. ORDERING INFORMATION Full Function: Software Licenses: QL-2AQA*-** Software Media: QA-03XAA-H8 Hardcopy Documentation: QA-2AQAA-GZ Software Product Services: QT-2AQA*-** 8 Client: Software Licenses: QL-2ARA*-** Software Media: QA-03XAA-H8 Hardcopy Documentation: QA-2AQAA-GZ Software Product Services: QT-2ARA*-** * Denotes variant fields. For additional information on available li- censes, services, and media, refer to the appropriate price book. SOFTWARE LICENSING This software is furnished only under a license. For more information about Digital's licensing terms and policies, contact your local Dig- ital office. License Management Facility Support This layered product supports the OpenVMS License Management Facil- ity. Full Function: License units for this product are allocated on an Unlimited System Use basis. Client: License units for this product are allocated on an Unlimited System Use basis. For more information on the License Management Facility, refer to the OpenVMS Alpha Operating System Software Product Description (SPD 41.87.xx) or the OpenVMS Alpha Operating System documentation. 9 SOFTWARE PRODUCT SERVICES A variety of service options are available from Digital. For more in- formation, contact your local Digital office. SOFTWARE WARRANTY Warranty for this software product is provided by Digital with the pur- chase of a license for the product as defined in the Software Warranty Addendum of this SPD. The above information is valid at time of release. Please contact your local Digital office for the most up-to-date information. [R] Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. [R] UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company, Ltd. [TM] Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. [TM] The DIGITAL Logo, Alpha AXP, AXP, CI, DEC, DECADMIRE, DECnet, Digital, OpenVMS, Reliable Transaction Router, TK, ULTRIX, VAX, and VMScluster are trademarks of Digital Equipment Cor- poration. © 1995 Digital Equipment Corporation. All rights reserved. 10