Windows Server

Guest

Hi, [Group]

I want comparision details of HIS 2004 with other competing servers in
the market.
I want details of comparision both feature wise and cost wise..
Can anyone plz let me know the enhancement in HIS 2004 compared to HIS
2000 and SNA Server

Regard's

Charan

Email: charan.babu@gmail.com

Neil Pike · Guest

Charan,

I've cut and pasted the HIS 2004 "whats new" section below.

I don't know of any detailed comparisons (cost or feature wise) between the
various products out there. And producing such a comparison would take a
while...

What features do you actually need? e.g. 3270, LU62, Printing, transaction
integration, DB2 access, VSAM access. For instance if you needed direct DB/2
Connectivity using ODBC/OLEDB/.NET then HIS 2004 (and previous versions) offer
that as part of the product. However, the major competitor, IBM's Comms Server
product, does not. You would need IBM DB/2 connect for that.

----

This release of Microsoft® Host Integration Server 2004 offers many new and
improved features. These features are highlighted below by product area.

Security Model
This release of Host Integration Server 2004 implements a new security model.
The access control for the Host Integration Server 2004 components is based on
two Windows security groups specified during setup. The Host Integration Server
2004 runtime group provides access to the Microsoft Windows® account under
which all the services run. The Host Integration Server 2004 Admin group is
used to provide access to users performing administrative tasks.

Setup and Configuration
Host Integration Server 2004 now installs with a new, Common Setup program used
in other Microsoft e-Business products, such as Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004.

In addition, the Resource Location Wizard has been replaced by a new
Configuration Wizard, which allows you to configure all Host Integration Server
2004 services, databases, and subdomain information more efficiently, either
during or after setup. A shortcut to the new Configuration Wizard is located in
the Host Integration Server 2004 Start menu.

Transaction Integrator
One goal of Host Integration Server 2004 is to enable enterprise developers to
move towards a services-oriented architecture (SOA) using the .NET Framework.
Transaction Integrator (TI), formerly COM Transaction Integrator for CICS and
IMS (COMTI), allows Microsoft Windows developers to publish business rules in
mainframe CICS and IMS applications as XML Web services. The new TI Designer
runs within Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET 2003, providing a more efficient
developer experience. At the same time, TI has been extended to support AS/400
applications by offering a Report Program Generator (RPG) Import Wizard and
distributed program call runtime across a TCP/IP network connection.

Host Integration Server 2004 includes innovative technologies, such as TI
host-initiated processing (HIP) that offers TCP/IP and SNA listeners that allow
a server computer running Windows to function as a peer to IBM mainframe and
AS/400 computers. For example, CICS programmers can call into Windows COM+ or
..NET server components, as if they were another CICS transaction program by
using familiar programming models such as CICS distributed program link (DPL).
HIP allows enterprises to more effectively move portions of their application
logic or data onto the more cost-effective Windows and SQL Server platforms,
while ensuring logical and secure bidirectional application communication.

Host Integration Server 2004 offers industry-standard technologies allowing the
network administrator to move towards pure TCP/IP WANs and datacenters.
Transaction Integrator supports the CICS enhanced TCP/IP listener and
persistent TCP/IP connections.

The new TI allows computers running Windows to extend the functionality of
existing IBM mainframe and IBM midrange AS/400 line-of-business (LOB)
applications. In Host Integration Server 2004, TI offers both host-initiated
processing (HIP) as well as the previously offered Windows-initiated processing
(WIP). In Host Integration Server 2004, TI also supports AS/400 applications,
as well as mainframe CICS and IMS applications, when integrated across a TCP/IP
network connection. TI has been enhanced to offer support for the .NET
Framework. Using the new TI Designer, which runs in the context of the Visual
Studio .NET 2003 integrated development environment, Windows developers can use
TI WIP for .NET to wrap existing LOB applications as XML Web service or .NET
server components. In Host Integration Server 2004, the administrator can
utilize the new TI Manager which combines TI WIP and HIP Microsoft Management
Console (MMC) snap-ins into one view, allowing administrators to efficiently
define and manage WIP and HIP component applications.

Finally, TI has a number of other new features, including:

An alternative to explicit callback security by using the COMTIContext
parameter to pass a user ID and password.
Control of the TCP/IP CICS transaction request message (TRM) for
interoperability with CICS using TCP/IP custom TRMs.
Override of the remote environment (RE), program name, transaction name
settings in a type library using the COMTIContext parameter.
Support for persistent connections in WIP through client context. In Host
Integration Server 2000, COMTI had to open and close a connection each time it
made a method call to the mainframe. On the mainframe side, CICS had to start
and stop a transaction program. In Host Integration Server 2004, persistent
connections allow TI to open a connection for the first method in a group of
methods, make all the method calls, and then close the connection. On the
mainframe side, CICS starts an instance of the transaction program, keeps the
instance active between method calls, and then stops the program after the last
call.
Support for CICS Enhanced Listener through the enhanced listener message (ELM)
programming model. Host Integration Server 2004 takes advantage of the CICS
Transaction Server 2.2 Enhanced Listener to provide client and server
continuity and improved scalability for both the Transaction Integrator (TI)
client and CICS environments through a more streamlined application level
protocol exchange sequence. When you use the Enhanced Listener, TI bypasses the
transport logic that waits for a TRM reply and immediately sends the
application request data after the request header. TI then receives a single
data stream and interprets the TRM reply prior to processing the application
reply data.
Windows Initiated and Host Initiated Single Sign-On (SSO)
Arabic EBCDIC 420 bi-directional layout conversion
Client Context provides an alternative to Explicit Call Back Security
WIP Override RE via Client Context
WIP Override Program Name via Client Context
WIP Override Transaction Name via Client Context
The additional functionality provided by HIP and other forthcoming features
prompted a renaming of the features and functionality that you may be familiar
with in earlier versions of Host Integration Server:

COM Transaction Integrator for CICS and IMS (COMTI) is now called Transaction
Integrator (TI).
COMTI Management Console is now called TI Manager.
COMTI Component Builder is now called TI Designer.
See Also
Host-Initiated Processing

Windows-Initiated Processing

Persistent Connections with the Mainframe

Using Custom TRMs and ELMs with COMTIContext

TCP Transaction Request Message Link

TCP Enhanced Listener Message Link

TCP Transaction Request Message User Data

TCP Enhanced Listener Message User Data

TI Manager

TI Designer

Security Integration
This release of Host Integration Server 2004 ships with Enterprise Single
Sign-On (SSO), enabling single sign-on to end users for enterprise application
integration (EAI) solutions. SSO is comprised of two main elements:

Windows Initiated SSO maps Microsoft Windows accounts to back-end systems
Host Initiated SSO allows host requests to access Windows accounts
SSO simplifies the management of user IDs and passwords, both for users and for
administrators, by enabling users on host and Windows accounts to access
systems more efficiently than before.

In addition, the new Password Sync adapters allow synchronization of passwords.
A password sync adapter is an application you create that is registered within
the configuration store.

Data Integration
New to this release are a .NET Framework-enabled Managed Provider for DB2 and a
DB2 Network Protocol Client (DRDA AR), over which the ODBC, OLE DB, and Managed
Provider communicate to the remote DB2 database server. The Data Access Tool
and Data Source Wizard allow you to create and manage connection definitions to
DB2 and host file systems, and make it easier to define the Host Column
Descriptions used to access host data sets.

Additional new features include:

Windows Initiated and Host Initiated Single Sign-On
DB2 Distributed Transactions (two-phase commit) over TCP/IP
DB2 Connection Pooling
Arabic EBCDIC 420 bi-directional layout conversion
DB2OLEDB support for multiple result sets on calls to DB2 stored procedures
SNAOLEDB support access to VSAM data sets from SQL Server DTS
UNICODE, Double-Byte, and Mixed-Byte character set support when accessing DB2
Ability to import DB2 Connect configuration files
Additional DB2 configuration properties such as DBMS Platform (optimizing data
conversion across platforms), Default Qualifier (simplifying SQL syntax), and
Quoted Prefix (ensuring better support for generic consumers such as SQL
Server)
Network Integration
The new IP-DLC Link Service offers support for the industry-standard HPR/IP
protocol, which IBM calls Enterprise Extender. This in turn provides SNA
connectivity for applications using dependent and independent sessions over a
routable IP network. The IP-DLC link service is an add-on feature to the
existing SNA protocol node, transmitting each SNA packet across the IP network
as a UDP datagram.

From an application perspective, such as a 3270 emulator or WinAPPC program,
there is no change in functionality. However, the SNA network traffic from
branch-deployed or centrally-deployed Host Integration Server computers can be
routed across the IP network directly to an IBM mainframe system running OS/390
V2R10 or later and using an OSA or OSA Express compatible network adapter.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport-Level Services (TLS) allow a network
administrator using the TN3270 Service to increase the overall security of the
enterprise network when accessing mainframe terminal and printer resources,
including authentication of access to mainframe sessions and encryption of data
between client emulator and TN3270 server.

Although the Microsoft 3270 Client (emulator) does not support SSL or TLS, many
third-party software vendors offer 3270 emulators that support this
functionality, including Attachmate, IBM, NetManage, and WRQ.

Software Developers Kit
The Host Integration Server 2004 Programmer's Guide now installs with the core
product documentation.

Online Documentation
The new, redesigned Host Integration Server 2004 documentation set is now
entirely online. In addition to the documentation that ships with the product,
you can download a fully updated documentation set over the Web on a quarterly
basis. Some documents are included on your product CD; some documents are
available only on the Web.

Perhaps the most important addition to the documentation is the focus on
security. In keeping with the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Initiative, the
entire documentation set has been rewritten and now includes the following:

The Secure Deployment Guide is a comprehensive source for the latest and most
powerful deployment techniques to secure your Host Integration Server
environment. This guide is required reading for Administrators, Programmers,
and End Users.
Understanding Windows Security offers a broad overview of computer security
today, describes the STRIDE model for threat analysis, and lists the most
common security threats and how to mitigate them.
Numerous Security Tips placed throughout the conceptual, procedural, and
developer material offer current best practices when and where you need them.
General prescriptive guidance appears wherever appropriate in the documentation
to help you increase system security, mitigate security threats, and decrease
attack surfaces.

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