DIGITAL Software Product Description ___________________________________________________________________ PRODUCT NAME: Reliable Transaction Router[TM] Version 3.1D SPD 51.54.09 for UNIX[R] DESCRIPTION Reliable Transaction Router (RTR) is fault tolerant transactional mes- saging middleware, used to implement large, distributed applications using client/server technology. This release of Reliable Transaction Router for UNIX enables enterprises to deploy distributed Reliable Trans- action Router applications on Digital UNIX, IBM[R] AIX[TM], Sun[R] So- laris and Hewlett-Packard[R] HP-UX[R] platforms. Reliable Transaction Router Version 3.1D for UNIX is interoperable on all UNIX platforms, and with Reliable Transaction Router Version 3.1D for Windows NT[TM] and Windows 95, and with Reliable Transaction Router Version 3.1D for OpenVMS[TM]. Reliable Transaction Router Version 3.1D for Digital UNIX and Reliable Transaction Router Version 3.1D for Sun Solaris are interoperable with Reliable Transaction Router Version 2.2D (or higher) for OpenVMS (see the Optional Software section later in this document). RTR provides an API for development of distributed applications us- ing languages such as C and C++, with optional all-or-nothing trans- action semantics as well as a message broadcasting capability. The API calls are also available from a command line interface. RTR for UNIX provides a reliable, transparent, dynamic message routing system that includes both a transactional and non-transactional message control system. Reliable Transaction Router transaction management supports two-phase commit of distributed transactions. November 1997 AE-Q88EK-TE Reliable Transaction Router[TM] Version 3.1D SPD 51.54.09 for UNIX[R] Reliable Transaction Router implements automatic software fault tol- erance and failure recovery on the UNIX operating system in multin- ode environments by adapting to many kinds of hardware (CPU), commu- nications, application software, and site failures. Automatic failover and recovery of service operates by exploiting redundant or alternate hardware and network links. If alternative hardware or network links are not available, RTR automatically continues service when the CPU or network link becomes available. Reliable Transaction Router applications are developed and deployed using a three-tier client/router/server software model. Client appli- cations call the Reliable Transaction Router "client" software tier, which passes messages to the "router" tier of the software. Messages and transactions are routed reliably and transparently, based on mes- sage content, to the appropriate process(es) in the "server" tier. Server applications typically execute transactions against a database and re- turn results back to clients. A single physical node may run one, two, or three tiers of the RTR client /router/server software model. Each of the three software tiers may consist of one or more nodes. The software model and its content-based routing present a "virtual", rather than physical, network to the ap- plication developer, providing a single view of a distributed client/server environment. This technique allows the application software to be in- dependent of physical hardware (CPU) location, network naming conven- tions, and communications protocol. This facilitates single-node de- velopment, and transparent scalability of applications to complex net- work configurations. Reliable Transaction Router software fault tolerant features such as router failover and shadow-server processing provide continuous com- puting services with completion of in-progress transactions despite single or multiple points of failure in the distributed client/server environment. Call-out servers implement user authentication control, and concurrent servers provide dynamic message load balancing for high performance. The high performance transactional messaging is imple- mented as a full-duplex conversation with remote server procedures us- ing real-time flow control techniques. These features generally re- quire no special user application programming logic. 2 Reliable Transaction Router[TM] Version 3.1D SPD 51.54.09 for UNIX[R] The system management interface allows the creation, deletion, and mod- ification of virtual networks (facilities) within a network, and per- mits control of distributed Reliable Transaction Router processes from a single system within the distributed environment. The Reliable Trans- action Router system management interface is used to bind the phys- ical hardware (CPU and communications) to a virtual network namespace and is transparent to the applications software. A monitoring util- ity can be invoked to report application performance information on the local node. Reliable Transaction Router is independent of forms/window management systems and databases. Multiple databases and other resource managers (e.g.; flat-file systems) can be updated within the same distributed transaction. Reliable Transaction Router V3.1D for UNIX is intended for distributed applications that require continuous computing services and transac- tion integrity (e.g., trading/money dealing systems, transportation systems, telecommunications systems, and so on). Reliable Transaction Router can also be used for applications that require reliable mes- saging and fault tolerant application control over LANs, WANs or the Internet. Reliable Transaction Router provides the enabling technol- ogy for applications requiring fully distributed client/server mod- els. 3 Reliable Transaction Router[TM] Version 3.1D SPD 51.54.09 for UNIX[R] License Types Reliable Transaction Router for UNIX has two license types. The Back End license (which provides full client/router/server functionality) is required for nodes configured as routers or servers, and can also be used for nodes configured as clients. The Front End license pro- vides client functionality only, plus a single-node development and testing environment for RTR applications. Back End Features o Provides transparent, content-based transaction routing for client/server applications. o Provides nontransaction based routing (broadcasts) for multiple sub- scription domains within a virtual network. o Interoperates with the Alta Vista Group Tunnel to provide secure Internet access to RTR application environment. The Tunnel can carry any RTR connection (backend to router or router to frontend). o Allows user-defined partitioned data models (content-based rout- ing) for improved performance of user applications. o Acts as a layer between the application clients 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. o Ensures atomicity of transactions (all or nothing) by using a two- phase commit protocol for transactional message delivery 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. o Supports multiple (concurrent) servers as well as multithreaded clients and servers. 4 Reliable Transaction Router[TM] Version 3.1D SPD 51.54.09 for UNIX[R] o Provides disaster protection against site failure by mirroring trans- actions in shadow-server environments. Automatic resynchronization of shadow pairs after recovery is supported. o Maintains performance scaling over a wide range of configurations allowing easy horizontal expansion of both hardware systems and ap- plication software. o Enables automatic failover/failback of application servers on mul- tiple backend systems while remaining transparent to client appli- cations executing on remote system(s). Reliable Transaction Router for UNIX can maintain application operation in many instances of single or multiple failure modes in a widely distributed software /hardware configuration. o Includes system management utilities for online control of virtual networks from any workstation or terminal with the appropriate priv- ileges. Monitoring of statistics, software and hardware states, and clients and servers is provided on a local node basis. o Uses TCP/IP and/or DECnet as the underlying transport(s) for the virtual network. (Reliable Transaction Router for AIX and Reliable Transaction Router for HP-UX use only TCP/IP.) o Supports anonymous clients, i.e. allows clients to be configured with wildcard node names. Front End Features o Provides the necessary environment to run Reliable Transaction Router client applications under UNIX as part of a Reliable Transaction Router virtual network. o Supports transactional and nontransactional (broadcast) messages. o Supports automatic failover to another router in the event of a com- munication link failure. o Supports Reliable Transaction Router system management operations. o Uses TCP/IP and/or DECnet as the underlying transport(s) for the virtual network. (RTR for AIX and RTR for HP-UX use only TCP/IP.) 5 Reliable Transaction Router[TM] Version 3.1D SPD 51.54.09 for UNIX[R] HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS Any hardware that supports the underlying operating system. Other Hardware requirements A CD-ROM drive is required for installation on SUN Solaris, AIX and HP-UX. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS o Digital UNIX Operating System. Reliable Transaction Router has been tested on and runs with Digital UNIX Versions 3.2C, 3.2G and 4.0B. The TCP/IP protocol suite is implemented in the socket framework provided by the operating system. Refer to the Digital UNIX Software Product Description (SPD 41.61.xx) for more information on the operating system and hardware requirements and support. o SUN Solaris operating system. Reliable Transaction Router has been tested on and runs with SUN Solaris Versions 2.4 and 2.5 (SunOS ver- sions 5.4, 5.5 and 5.5.1). o IBM AIX operating system. Reliable Transaction Router has been tested on and runs with AIX versions 4.1.3 and 4.1.4. o Hewlett-Packard HP-UX operating system. Reliable Transaction Router has been tested on and runs with HP-UX version 10.20. OPTIONAL SOFTWARE o Optional software commonly used in developing and deploying Reli- able Transaction Router applications includes programming languages such as C, C++, and database software offered by third-party ven- dors such as Oracle Corporation. o DECnet-Plus V3.0 or higher for Digital UNIX (required for DECnet/OSI configurations). 6 Reliable Transaction Router[TM] Version 3.1D SPD 51.54.09 for UNIX[R] o SunLink[R] DNI Version 8.0 or higher (required for DECnet config- urations with SunOS). o Reliable Transaction Router configurations can include a combina- tion of Version 3.1D for UNIX (running on Digital UNIX or SUN So- laris platforms) and Version 2.2D ECO4 (or higher) for OpenVMS, sub- ject to the restriction that within a given facility, all router and server nodes must be homogeneous with respect to Reliable Trans- action Router software version (all Version 2.2D or all Version 3.1D). Refer to the product's Software Product Description for more infor- mation on optional software products and hardware requirements and sup- port. GROWTH CONSIDERATIONS The minimum hardware/software requirements for any future version of this product may be different from the requirements for the current version. DISTRIBUTION MEDIA The software and documentation for the Digital UNIX platform are avail- able on the Digital CD-ROM Software Library for Digital UNIX. The soft- ware documentation is also available in hardcopy format. The software for the SUN, AIX and HP-UX platforms is available on CD-ROM. The software documentation is the same as the Digital UNIX documen- tation. ORDERING INFORMATION 7 Reliable Transaction Router[TM] Version 3.1D SPD 51.54.09 for UNIX[R] Digital UNIX Platform Back End Software Licenses: QL-2K3A*-** Front End Software Licenses: QL-2K2A*-** Hardcopy Documentation: QA-2K2AA-GZ Software Product Services: QT-2K3A*-** Sun Solaris Platform Back End Software Licenses: QL-4BVA*-** Front End Software Licenses: QL-4BUA*-** CD-ROM Media: QA-4BVAA-H8 Hardcopy Documentation: QA-4BVAA-GZ Software Product Services: QT-4BVA*-** IBM AIX Platform Back End Software Licenses: QL-56DA*-** Front End Software Licenses: QL-56CA*-** CD-ROM Media: QA-56DAA-H8 Hardcopy Documentation: QA-56DAA-GZ Software Product Services: QT-56DA*-** HP-UX Platform Back End Software Licenses: QL-5M0A*-** Front End Software Licenses: QL-5LZA*-** CD-ROM Media: QA-5M0AA-H8 Hardcopy Documentation: QA-5M0AA-GZ Software Product Services: QT-5M0A*-** * Denotes variant fields. For additional information on available li- censes, services, and media, refer to the appropriate price book. 8 Reliable Transaction Router[TM] Version 3.1D SPD 51.54.09 for UNIX[R] 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 for Digital UNIX: This software supports the Digital UNIX Operating System License Man- agement Facility. For more information on the License Management Fa- cility, refer to the Digital UNIX Operating System Software Product Description (SPD 41.61.xx). Back End License: License units for this product are allocated on a CPU-capacity basis. Front End License: License units for this product are allocated on a CPU-capacity basis. 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. © 1997 Digital Equipment Corporation. All rights reserved. 9 Reliable Transaction Router[TM] Version 3.1D SPD 51.54.09 for UNIX[R] [TM] AIX is a trademark of International Business Machines Corpo- ration. [R] HP-UX is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company. [R] IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Ma- chines Corporation. [R] ORACLE is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. [R] Sun, SunLink and Solaris are registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. [R] UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company, Ltd. [TM] SPARCstation is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. [TM] Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. [TM] The DIGITAL Logo, Alpha, DEC, DECnet, Digital, OpenVMS and Reliable Transaction Router are trademarks of Digital Equip- ment Corporation. 10