System requirements and compatibility Q: What version of IMS works with IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway?
A: IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway works with IMS Version 10 and IMS Version 11. The integrated IMS Connect function is required. The integrated IMS Connect function can coexist with earlier or newer versions of IMS. See the Release Planning Guide for the version of IMS that you are using for IMS Connect coexistence considerations and coexistence APARs. Q: What's new in IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway that is not in IMS SOAP Gateway V10?
A: The new features in IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway are: - IMS applications can now send business event data through IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway to business event processing and monitoring engines such as IBM WebSphere® Business Events and IBM WebSphere Business Monitor.
- Web Services Security (WS-Security) is now supported for Web services that run on SOAP Gateway. WS-Security support enables dynamic user authentication on a per-message basis. Instead of static authentications on a per-Web service basis, each request for a Web service is authenticated dynamically based on the IMS Connect security setup.
| Both features require IMS Version 11 with integrated IMS Connect. Q: How do I migrate from IMS SOAP Gateway V10 to IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway?
A: IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway provides migration scripts and instructions for migrating Web services from IMS SOAP Gateway Version 10 to IMS Enterprise Suite Version 1.1 SOAP Gateway for AIX, Linux for System z, and z/OS platforms. For Windows systems, you must manually migrate the Web service artifacts by following the provided instructions. The steps involve migrating the correlator files, the connection bundle, the WSDL files, and some server properties. The migration instructions are included in the docs/ directory. Q: I am not using the callout feature. Is there a way to turn off this feature?
A: There are two ways to disable the callout feature: - Delete any values in the callout tpipes entry in the connbundle.XML file.
- Stop the callout threads by using the IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway Deployment utility. However, this operation is required every time the server is restarted.
Tooling support Q: Is there any tooling available for IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway that helps generate the necessary Web artifacts or XML converters?
A: Rational Developer for System z provides a wizard that lets you generate the artifacts that are needed to enable your IMS applications as Web service providers or consumers. For the new features in IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway, Rational Developer for System z Version 7.6 or later is required. | Two limited usage licenses (without support) of IBM Rational Developer for System z are provided for each license of IMS Version 11 and IMS Version 10 for customers who also use IMS SOA Integration Suite components. Terms and conditions are outlined in the Rational Developer for System z licensing, along with Rational Developer for System z, and can be downloaded from the IMS Enterprise Suite download Web site. |
Downloading Q: Where can I download IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway?
A: Go to the IMS Enterprise Suite download Web site. You can download SOAP Gateway and other components in the IMS Enterprise Suite. IMS Version 10 and Version 11 customers can also download Rational Developer for System z. Important: If you plan to install SOAP Gateway on a z/OS system, the best approach is to order IMS Enterprise Suite and receive the product on a tape. If you download the z/OS version of SOAP Gateway from the Web, you must follow the instructions provided on the IMS Enterprise Suite download Web site to transfer the files to the z/OS system. Q: What download options are available?
A: There are two options available on the IMS Enterprise Suite download Web site. You can use either the Download Director or HTTP. The advantage of using the Download Director is that you can pause and resume the download at any time. You can even restart your system and resume the download later at a convenient time. Download Director is optimized for performance and reliability. Q: What is Download Director?
A: Download Director is a Java applet that is launched when you download IBM products from the Internet. It provides high-performance, reliable downloads with pause and resume capabilities. It starts in a separate browser window and provides a graphical user interface (GUI) to specify the download location and view download status.
For more information about Download Director, see the Download Director FAQs. Q: What is the typical network bandwidth that is needed for these downloads?
A: We recommend downloads to use networks with high bandwidths as in corporate networks or comparable environments. Downloading from low-bandwidth networks might result in slow and long-running downloads, depending on the limits imposed by your Internet access providers. Q: Are there other modes of distribution to obtain IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway?
A: IMS Enterprise Suite is also shipped in a Custom-Built Product Delivery Offering (CBPDO).
Documentation and samples Q: Where is the IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway documentation located?
A: The IMS Enterprise Suite documentation is available in the IBM® Information Management Software for z/OS® Solutions Information Center at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/dzichelp/v2r2/topic/com.ibm.ims.soap.doc/soapoverview.htm.
Q: Are there any samples for IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway?
A: Samples for SOAP Gateway are available from the IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway Web site. The samples demonstrate the three usage scenarios: enabling an IMS application as a Web service provider, enabling an IMS application as a Web service consumer (issuing a callout request to a Web service), and enabling an IMS application to send business event data to a business event processing or monitoring engine.
XML converters Q: Why does the data set that contains the XML converters need to be APF-authorized?
A: When the ADAPTER=(XML=Y) parameter is specified in IMS Connect, IMS Connect handles the conversion, and the data set with the compiled converters needs to be concatenated to STEPLIB with the IMS RESLIB data set. Because IMS RESLIB requires APF authorization, all data sets concatenated with it must also be APF-authorized. Q: What is required in the converter linkedit step? I linked my converter, IMSPHBKD, into a data set concatenated with IMS Connect STEPLIB, but the Web service does not run. Is there something special required in the linkedit step?
A: The converter needs an alias linked with the converter code, using the same name as the converter, with an X suffix. This means that a converter name must be seven or less characters. The following example is for IMSPHBKD: //LKED.SYSIN DD *
ENTRY IMSPHBKD
ALIAS IMSPHBKX
NAME IMSPHBKD(R) Q: I received the following error when trying to test an IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway Web service. I checked the data set, and my converter compiled successfully. What is causing this error?
ERROR: com.ibm.ims.soap.server.IMSSOAPException: IOGC006E: IMS Connect XML Adapter returns an error. Return code: [208]. Outbound Error: The specified XML Converter Driver [XXXXXXX] was not found or there was a load failure.
A: You need to cycle IMS Connect to get the module loaded into storage.
Limitations Q: Does IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway support conversational transactions? Are there any limitations that I should be aware of?
A: IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway has the following limitations: - Only non-conversational transactions are supported.
- Only CM1, Sync Level None protocol is supported.
- MFS-based transactions are not supported.
- Two-phase commit is not supported.
- Multi-segment messages are supported for the provider scenario only (IMS applications as Web service providers). For multi-segment messages support, if you are using IMS Version 10, you must apply APAR 69366. You also need Rational Developer for System z Version 7.6 or later.
The following restrictions apply to the IMS multi-segment message layouts: - Only one input and output message layout is allowed for each Web service.
- The size of a language structure is limited to the maximum size of a segment: 32 KB.
- Although a language structure can occur more than once, the occurrences must be consecutive. The occurrences cannot be interleaved with occurrences of other language structures.
- At most one language structure can occur a variable number of times (variable-count) and can be followed only by a language structure with a minimum and maximum count of 1.
- The total maximum size of the message layout, when represented in either XML or binary format, cannot exceed 32 MB when IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS Version 3.4 or later is used, or 16 MB when IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS Version 3.3 or earlier is used.
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