_______________________________________________________ November 2001 DEC/EDI Version V4.0 Release Notes This document provides supplemental information about DEC/EDI Version V4.0. This includes DEC/EDI Application Client and Server for OpenVMS AXP and Tru64 UNIX , DEC/EDI Application Client for Sun Solaris, HP-UX, Windows NT and RedHat Linux 6.2 and DEC/EDI Cockpit and CommandCenter for use with OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX Servers. It includes notes on restrictions, and known problems. Software Version: DEC/EDI for OpenVMS Version V4.0 and DEC/EDI for Tru64 UNIX Version V4.0 Required Operating System: OpenVMS Version 7.2-1 Tru64 UNIX Version V5.1 Required Software: TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Required Software: Oracle RDB V7.0.3 Oracle 8.1.6.2.0 or 9.0.1 Required Software: DECForms V3.0 Optional Software: DECnet (Phase IV) or DECnet-Plus (PhaseV) V5.01 Optional Software: MAILbus 400 MTA version 2.0C MAILbus 400 MTA version 2.0B Optional Software: Compaq X.25 for OpenVMS, V1.4 Compaq X.25 for Tru64 UNIX, V3.12 Compaq Computer Corporation ____________________________________________________________ November 2001 Possession, use or copying of the software described in this publication is authorized only pursuant to a valid written license from Compaq[TM] or an authorized sublicensor. While Compaq believes the information included in this publication is correct as of the date of publication, it is subject to change without notice. Compaq Computer Corporation makes no representations that the use of its products in the manner described in this document will not infringe on existing or future patent rights, nor do the descriptions contained in this document imply the granting of licenses to make, use, or sell equipment or software in accordance with the description. (c) Compaq Computer Corporation 1990,2001. All rights reserved. The following are trademarks of Compaq Computer Corporation: AXP, DEC, Compaq, DEC/EDI, DECforms, DECnet, DECwindows, MAILbus, OpenVMS, Tru64, VMS, VMSmail. AT&T is a trademark of American Telephone & Telegraph Company. TYMNET is a registered trademark of TYMNET, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark licensed exclusively by X/Open Company Ltd. OSF/1 is a registered trademark of Open Software Foundation, Inc. HP and HP-UX are registered trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Company. Microsoft is a registered trademark, and Windows is a trademark, of Microsoft Corporation. CLEO, 3780Plus and SYNCcable+ are registered trademarks of CLEO Communications. Oracle is a registered trademark of the Oracle Corporation. Adobe and Acrobat are registered trademarks of AdobeSystems Incorporated. Sun and Solaris are registered trademarks of SunMicrosystems, Inc. HP and HP-UX is registered trademark of Hewlett Packard Company. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Contents ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Document Contents 1.2 New Users 1.3 Existing Users ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 2 NEW FEATURES 2.1 Transmission File Builder (one-low priority, multiple high-priority) 2.2 Communication Controller (One-Scheduler, multiple inbound comms-controller) 2.3 Transmission File Splitter (Process Separate Interchanges) 2.4 Application File Server (Removed) 2.5 Translator (Writing to AVAILABLE table) 2.6 CSF (Read from AVAILABLE table on FETCH) 2.7 TFB (Writes directly to gateway) 2.8 DECEDI$STARTUP (Now performs full startup) 2.9 Filebridge database (Removed) 2.10 Intermediate statuses (Removed) 2.11 Addition of "year_s" field 2.12 Transmission Filename format & DOCcount number (Modified) 2.13 Port-id changes (DECEDI_SERVERS.DAT file) 2.14 DHCP support (Remove the IP address registration) 2.15 Node-specific connections (New Node-name table) 2.16 Mailbox to ICC Conversion (Interprocess Communication process) 2.17 Node specific startup file 2.18 In-memory queue viewer. ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 3 KNOWN PROBLEMS 3.1 Problem with Oracle RDB version 3.00.01.00 3.2 Problem in assigning value to PEDI Subject field(Open VMS) 3.3 Problem in PS startup, when tracing is enabled. (Open VMS) ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 4 PROBLEMS WITH SOLUTIONS 4.1 Problem in archiving purgeable documents after fetching(Open VMS) 4.2 Problem in shutting down TFB when batch document building in progress(Open VMS). 4.3 Problem in interchange cancel batch(Open VMS). 4.4 Problem in reprocess/cancel failed doc in cockpit(Open VMS). ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 5 APPLICATION CLIENT RELEASE NOTES 5.1 Application Client on RedHat Linux 6.2 5.2 Application Client on Windows NT with limited TRACK functionality 5.3 Application Client on Sun Solaris 5.4 Application Client on HP-UX ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 1.1 Document Content This document forms the release notes for the following products: o DEC/EDI for OpenVMS[TM] ALpha[TM], V4.0. This product contains both application client and server components for the OpenVMS Alpha platform. o DEC/EDI for Tru64 UNIX [TM], V4.0. This product contains both application client and server components for the Tru64 UNIX platform. o DEC/EDI Cockpit, V4.0. This product contains the DEC/EDI Cockpit and Access Control Editor for use with DEC/EDI for Tru64 UNIX and DEC/EDI for OpenVMS VAX and Alpha servers. o DEC/EDI CommandCenter, V4.0. This product contains the DEC/EDI Cockpit and CommandCenter applications for use with DEC/EDI for Tru64 UNIX and DEC/EDI for OpenVMS Alpha servers, and online documentation in Adobe[TM] Acrobat [TM] format. All information in this document applies equally to all of the above products unless specifically stated otherwise. The information in Chapter 5 is common to all Application Clients. In addition to the OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX Application Clients DEC/EDI V4.0 also includes the following: o DEC/EDI for Sun[TM] Solaris[TM], V4.0. This product contains the DEC/EDI application client for the Sun Solaris platform. o DEC/EDI for HP-UX[TM], V4.0. This product contains the DEC/EDI application client for the HP-UX platform. __________________________________________________________ 1.2 New Users If you are a new user of DEC/EDI, you should follow the installation instructions for the product contained in DEC/EDI: Installation. You are also recommended to read DEC/EDI: Introduction which gives an overview of DEC/EDI describing the main componentsof the system and explaining how the system processes business data. __________________________________________________________ 1.3 Existing Users If you are an existing user of DEC/EDI, you should follow the installation instructions for the product contained in DEC/EDI:Installation. After the migration to DEC/EDI V4.0 if you need to use the existing maps, these must be re-compiled and copied back to the server. DEC/EDI V4.0 automatically stores the new DEC/EDI version information inside the maps. This is a mandatory step before issuing TRADE POST/FETCH commands. DEC/EDI for OpenVMS Alpha, V4.0 supports installation over previous OpenVMS Alpha versions of the product. Specifically it may be installed over: o DEC/EDI V3.2B DEC/EDI for Tru64 UNIX , V4.0 supports installation over previous Digital UNIX versions of the product. Specifically it may be installed over: o DEC/EDI V3.2B ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 2 ____________________________________________________________ This chapter outlines the major new features introduced in DEC/EDI V4.0 since the previous release. ____________________________________________________________ DEC/EDI V4.0 addresses the following major areas: o Availability o Scalability o Performance Internal-node-name naming convention One instance of DEC/EDI can now be started on each node of the cluster. The first node to start DEC/EDI in the cluster environment will internally acquire a distinct name ('A'). While this node is running DEC/EDI, if another instance of DEC/EDI is started on a different node then it acquires the next available and unused English alphabet letter ('B') and so on. If DEC/EDI is brought down on any of the intermediate nodes, the corresponding internal-node-name (English alphabet) is released. Any subsequent node starting DEC/EDI in the cluster will obtain the first available and unused internal- node-name. The internal-node-names are used to create a unique lock name. Consequently, any cluster can run a maximum of only 26 DEC/EDI servers. DEC/EDI supports clustering on both OpenVMS using standard OpenVMS Clustering facilities and Memory Channel based TruCluster Server environment on Compaq Tru64 UNIX. Availability DEC/EDI V4.0 can now be run in a clustered environment. It can be started selectively on each node in the cluster. When DEC/EDI shutdown is performed on a node 'A', the other instance of DEC/EDI running on node 'B' automatically takes over the load from node 'A'. This ensures high availability of the DEC/EDI system for maintenance and upgradation activities. Scalability Additional nodes can be added to the cluster as and when required and DEC/EDI can be started on it. The performance of DEC/EDI can be scaled in this manner. The maximum number of nodes on which DEC/EDI V4.0 can run in a clustered environment is 26 (each node is logically named starting from 'A' to 'Z'). Performance on OpenVMS Each process in DEC/EDI V4.0 with the exception of DECEDI$DS (Data Server), DECEDI$PS (Port Server) and Gateways can run in multiple instances. For example, 2 or more EDIFACT converters can run simultenaously on each node. The process names would be listed as DECEDI$CNV_E_1 and DECEDI$CNV_E_2. The maximum number is defined using the logical DECEDI$N_EDIF_CNV_MAX = "5". Few intermediate database updates and processes have been removed in this version. The ability of run multiple instances of processes on a node improves the performance and throughput of the system. Performance on Tru64 UNIX Performance on Compaq Tru64 UNIX systems has been enhanced by adding memory resident work queues. Previous versions of DEC/EDI used database polling techniques to discover any work that was required of them. By removing this polling technique into memory, database contention has been significantly reduced as has the need for the frequency of updates to the database reducing the IO bandwidth requirements. In addition to this, DEC/EDI has been redesigned to allow multiple instances of several key processes to exist on the same system simultaneuosly. See the appendix on environment variables in the DEC/EDI Tru64 UNIX Users Guide and the following sections for more information. TruCluster Server Support on Tru64 UNIX The introduction of TruCluster Server support and the use of the Memory Channel technology has allowed these performance improvements to be carried over to the scalability and availability of the TruCluster Server environment. However DEC/EDI currently only supports Memory Channel based TruCluster Server instances. 2.1 Transmission File Builder (one-low priority, multiple high-priority). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. DEC/EDI V4.0 now has the ability to run multiple instances of transmission file builders. The first TFB started will excusively process the low priority documents. It also keeps track of the build intervals, etc. All other TFBs will process only high priority documents. When the first TFB is terminated, the next TFB in line will start processing the low priority TFB and takes over all the pending jobs of the terminated TFB. ____________________________________________________________ 2.2 Communication Controller (One-Scheduler, multiple inbound comms-controller). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. DEC/EDI V4.0 on OpenVMS now has the ability to run multiple instances of Communication Controller (CC). The first CC started will additionally assume the role of a scheduler. If more than one CC is started each instance will process only inbound connections. Incase the first CC is shutdown, one of the CC processing inbound communications will takeover the role of the scheduler. DEC/EDI V4.0 on Tru64 UNIX also has the ability to operate multiple Communications Controllers on each system. Each Communications Controller polls the central in-memory work queues to discover the next inbound transmission file that requires processing allowing them to quickly and efficiently process all outstanding work in parallel. ____________________________________________________________ 2.3 Transmission File Splitter (Process seperate Interchanges simultaneously). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. Each TFS will receive an Interchange from inbound CC and split them into individual documents. These are then passed on to individual translators for further processing. If an Interchange or a docment within an interchange requires an acknowledgement, a single translator will process all documents corresponding to this interchange. If acknowledgements are not required, then multiple translators can process these documents. ____________________________________________________________ 2.4 Application File Server (Removed). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. All documents were passed through the application file server (AFS) process in the inbound direction. This used to form a bottleneck in a high transaction environment. On OpenVMS, all translators now write the document information to an AVAIL_TABLE table in the inbound direction. The application clients can fetch directly from the AVAIL_TABLE table. On Tru64 UNIX, all translators now add the documents to the in-memory queue of available documents allowing the clients to directly scan the queue to discover which documents are available. ____________________________________________________________ 2.5 Translator (Writing to AVAILABLE table). OpenVMS only. Each translator writes information on successfully processed documents to an AVAIL_TABLE table in audit database. This information was previously being maintained by AFS process in an internal linked-list. All application client accesses were serialized through the AFS process thus impacting the speed of execution. With the introduction of new AVAIL_TABLE, the AFS process has been removed which was a cause for bottleneck in the system. ____________________________________________________________ 2.6 CSF (Read from AVAILABLE table on FETCH). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. On OpenVMS, each CSF process now fetches the documents by reading the entries in the AVAIL_TABLE table matching the selection criteria. Consequently, the Application File Server (AFS) process has been removed completely from the system, which was found to be a bottleneck in the processing speed. On Tru64 UNIX, each CSF process now scans the in-memory Available To Fetch work queue matching the selection criteria. Consequently, the Application File Server (AFS) process has been removed completely from the system, which was found to be a bottleneck in the processing speed. ____________________________________________________________ 2.7 TFB (Writes directly to gateway). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. Each TFB process now writes directly to the gateway process after building the transmission file. If the priority of the transmission file is high or the gateway is not batch driven, then the gateway processes the transmission file immediately. If the priority is normal and the gateway is batch driven (Import/Export, 3780 and, on OpenVMS, X.25) the gateway will not be notified. Previously, all outbound transmission files were being passed through Communications Controller thus overloading it. Now, Communications Controller will only perform scheduling (OpenVMS only) and processing inbound transmissions. ____________________________________________________________ 2.8 DECEDI$STARTUP (Now performs full startup). OpenVMS only. DEC/EDI V4.0 startup process on each node is now performed in full mode. Each node now has a node- specific startup file, which can specify the maximum instances of DEC/EDI processes allowed to run on that node. Apart from Port Server (PS) and Data Server (DS), all processes can be shutdown from interchange allowing for partial shutdown feature. In this mode, few housekeeping functions like RECOVER can run. Except for the DECEDI$CS* processes, the maximum instance of all BUILDERS, CONVERTERS, TRANSLATORS, SCHEDULERS and ARCHIVE SERVERS is 10 on each node of the cluster, even if the MAX logicals and MAX_PERSTART logicals are set above 10. However, the maximum number of TRANSLATORS is restricted to only 9 per node. This limitation is due to the process name size on VMS, which is limited to a maximum of 15 characters. The other options to start mapper only and GUI only are no longer suported from V4.0 onwards. In order to perform a partial shutdown, all the other processes can be shutdown fmom interchange. ____________________________________________________________ 2.9 Filebridge database (Removed). OpenVMS only. Filebridge database has now been removed from DEC/EDI. Filebridge tables are now contained in the decedi$audit_db database. Consequently, filebridge send/receive/define, etc commands are no longer available. To send and receive files the trade post and trade fetch functions should be used. To edit mapping tables, use the INTERCHANGE EDIT MAP command. ____________________________________________________________ 2.10 Intermediate status (Removed). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. The following transient statuses are removed from DEC/EDI for faster database accesses and processing. 1. CONVERTING 2. TRANSLATING 3. SEPERATING 4. IDENTIFYING 5. RECEIVING Additionally, on Tru64 UNIX only, the following statuses have been removed. These statuses were used by DEC/EDI to drive DEC/EDI's work list which has now been moved into shared memory. 6. CONVERTED 7. BUILDING 8. BUILT 9. SENDING 10. IDENTIFIED 11. PROCESSING ____________________________________________________________ 2.11 Addition of "year_s" field. OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. Documents names are generated in DEC/EDI based on date and time upto an accuracy of microsecond. The date does not include the year due to the size limitation of the 10 digit document count. In a rare case, if 2 documents are generated with similar names but in different years, then the archiver may not uniquely identify the documents. To overcome this situation, another field, the year of creation, has been added to the archive database document tables. While migrating from V3.2B to V4.0, the above mentioned tables are appropriately modified. ____________________________________________________________ 2.12 Transmission Filename format & document ID (Modified). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. The transmission filename and document IDs have been modififed to include the cluster member letter ('A' to 'Z') to uniquely identify the document or transmission file in DEC/EDI. The format for the document ID is Cluster_Member_Letter(1) + seconds(5) encoded to base36 + nanoseconds(4) encoded to base36. For example the document count on node 'A' would look like 'ALABDCGJV0'. The format for transmission file is Year(4) + Month(2) + Date(2) + HHMMSS + Cluster_Member_Letter(1) + nanoseconds(5) encoded to base36. For example transmission file one node 'B' would look as '20010907010847B280F2'. Note that the dates and times used are all based on the GMT timezone so that changes in Daylight Savings times do not result in duplicate names being generated. ____________________________________________________________ 2.13 Port-id changes (decedi_servers.dat file). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. Application clients always refer to services file in order to obtain the port numbers of the CSF and the CST processes on the server. The clients connecting to multiple servers (eg: production and test server) may have CSF and CST running on different ports. To access both these servers, from the same client, the services file on the client needs to be changed on each access. To overcome this issue decedi_servers.dat file has been modified to include the port-id of the processes (CSF & CST) against each application-id and server- name combination. Refer to decedi_servers.template for the format specification. ____________________________________________________________ 2.14 DHCP support (Modified the IP address registration to fully qualified domain name). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. CommandCenter and Cockpit users are no longer validated by requiring their TCP/IP addresses to be registered in the local hosts database or on a remote DNS server. This feature will enable the users to configure the PC clients with DHCP addresses. ____________________________________________________________ 2.15 Node-specific connections (New Node-name table). OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. Every connection-id can be limited to run on specific nodes only by specifying the node-name to run in the connection details. By default all connection-ids will run on all nodes. This will enable users to install/configure specific gateways on designated nodes only. ____________________________________________________________ 2.16 Mailbox to ICC Conversion (Interprocess communication process). OpenVMS only. In previous versions of DEC/EDI, VMS mailboxes were used for Interprocess communication. In DEC/EDI V4.0, these have been replaced with the cluster-aware Intra Cluster Communication (ICC) services in all the processes except the Data Server process. ____________________________________________________________ 2.17 Node specific startup file. OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX. DEC/EDI uses a new node specific startup file suffixed with node_name. This file contains the environment logicals that govern the processing on this node. The startup file automatically determines the node-name on which it is being started in the cluster environment and copies a template file to node-specific file. ____________________________________________________________ 2.18 In-memory queue viewer. Tru64 only. DEC/EDI V4.0 on Tru64 platform maintains the status of all documents in memory. Consequently, Cockpit has been enhanced to display the various memory queue contents attached to each process. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 3 Known Problems ____________________________________________________________ This chapter lists the known problem in DEC/EDI V4.0 at the time of its release. ____________________________________________________________ 3.1 Problem with Oracle RDB version 3.00.01.00 The latest release of Oracle RDB driver version 3.00.01.00 has a problem accessing the date fields. It is recommended to use an earlier version (2.10.17.00), which is found to be working correctly with DEC/EDI V4.0. ____________________________________________________________ 3.2 Problem in assigning value to PEDI Subject field(Open VMS). The Qualifier connection_data in trade post command for PEDI connection, supposed to fill the value for PEDI Subject field. But when an in house file is posted with connection_data qualifier this value is not filled in PEDI subject. ____________________________________________________________ 3.3 Problem in PS startup, when tracing is enabled(Open VMS). In clustered environment, when trace is enabled(DECEDI_TCP_TRACE). The following error is displayed. %DECEDI-E-ERROR, unsuccessful completion -DECEDI-E-ERROPENFILE, Error opening the file DECEDI$DATA:DECEDI_CS_TRACE.GS -RMS-E-FLK, file currently locked by another user -DECEDI-I-CONDLOGGED, condition logged by DECEDI$PS on node DEC/EDI users are advised not to enable the trace. In stand alone machine it is not a problem. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 4 Problems with Solutions ____________________________________________________________ This chapter lists the problems with solutions/work-arounds in DEC/EDI V4.0 at the time of its release. ____________________________________________________________ 4.1 Problem in archiving purgeable documents after fetching(Open VMS). After fetching the documents, some documents struck in purgeable state in the audit database. Those documents are not moved to archive database. There are no error log information. For 10000 documents fetching, approxmatly 5 documents will struck in audit Database. Workaround: Run "DECEDI$TOOLS:DECEDI$RECOVERY.COM" to move purgeable documents from audit database to archive database. ____________________________________________________________ 4.2 Problem in shutting down TFB when batch document building in progress(Open VMS). When batch document in building state, if you shutdown and restart the dec/edi the following error is logged, %DECEDI-I-INFO, Logged by DECEDI$$TFB_GEN_RESET_BATCHES -DECEDI-E-EDIPROCERR, error returned by DECEDI$$GEN_DELETE_FILE service routine -DECEDI-E-ERROR, unsuccessful completion -RMS-E-FLK, file currently locked by another user Workaround: DEC/EDI Users are adviced to ignore this error. This error does not cause any problems in the behavior. ____________________________________________________________ 4.3 Problem in interchange cancel batch(Open VMS). "Interchange cancel batch" command to cancel any X12 document in a batch which has failed during conversion. The remaining documents in the batch will stuck in "building" state waiting for the failed document to get reprocessed successfully. If you happen to cancel this batch "building" docs get stuck in that state itself. Workaround: The documents need to be canceled explicitly. This Problem is occuring intermittently. ____________________________________________________________ 4.4 Problem in reprocess/cancel failed doc in cockpit(Open VMS). When reprocess/cancel any failed document the display window shows ":Request Invalid". Workaround: The document reprocesed/canceled successfully. Only the display message is misguiding. It is advised to Ignore this error. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 5 Application Client Release Notes ____________________________________________________________ This chapter describes the release notes on DEC/EDI V4.0 Application Client. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ 5.1 Application Client on RedHat Linux 6.2 DEC/EDI V4.0 application client is now available on RedHat Linux version 6.2. This client supports all the TRADE POST, FETCH and TRACK features and can be used as remote client to DEC/EDI server running on Tru64 UNIX and OpenVMS Alpha. 5.2 Application Client on Windows NT with limited TRACK functionality DEC/EDI V4.0 application client is now available on Windows NT with limited TRACK functionality. The client has 2 separate modules that work in conjunction called Application Client Interface and Application COM Interface. The COM Interface exposes 4 methods, namely POST, FETCH, TRACK & RESET and several object properties before the method is invoked. The Client Interface provides a user-interface to set the properties and invoke these methods. The selected properties can be stored as a profile for reuse later. The COM object can be used from any COM-aware program script/language. 5.3 Application Client on Sun Solaris DEC/EDI V4.0 application client is also available on SUN Solaris platform. The client supports all the TRADE POST, FETCH and TRACK commands and can be used as a remote client to DEC/EDI server running on Tru64 UNIX or OpenVMS Alpha systems. 5.4 Application Client on HP-UX DEC/EDI V4.0 application client is also available on HP-UX platform. The client supports all the TRADE POST, FETCH and TRACK commands and can be used as a remote client to DEC/EDI server running on Tru64 UNIX or OpenVMS Alpha systems. _______________________________________________________ November 2001