1. Introducing the BEA eLink SNA System

BEA eLink for Mainframe SNA software provides a bidirectional link enabling BEA TUXEDO and IBM mainframe applications to interact as either a client or server, using a Customer Information Control System/Extended System Architecture (CICS/ESA) Distributed Program Link (DPL), Information Management System (IMS) implicit LU6.2, or any IBM-supported Application Program-to-Program Communication (APPC) or CICS/ESA interface.

BEA eLink SNA version 3.0 offers significant enhancements to prior versions. In summary, these include:

• New Process Architecture incorporating SNA Communication Resource Manager (SNACRM) for InterSystem Communications (ISC) connectivity along with a Process Initialization Server

• Sync-level 2 support enabling transactions between TUXEDO and a mainframe

• Added support for CICS/ESA ISC DPL

• Additional logging and trace files

Functions

BEA eLink for Mainframe SNA software performs the following functions:

• It supports the Application-Transaction Monitor Interface (ATMI) request/response model. Applications running in local TUXEDO System /T domains can request services in a remote domain. The remote domain is a MVS/CICS region. Applications in the remote domain can request services in a local TUXEDO System domain.

• It also supports the ATMI conversational model. Applications can establish a conversation between clients and servers in a TUXEDO System /T domain and an MVS/CICS region defined as a remote domain. Either side can initiate the conversation.

• It performs administration and configuration of a BEA eLink for Mainframe SNA gateway through the DMADM server and DMCONFIG server for a /SNA Domains instantiation.

• It supports the following typed buffers: FML, FML32, VIEW, VIEW32, X_COMMON, STRING, C_ARRAY, and X_OCTET. All buffer types except C_ARRAY and X_OCTET are converted automatically to and from EBCDIC between TUXEDO and CICS; C_ARRAY and X_OCTET are not converted.

• It maintains connectivity to multiple System Network Architecture (SNA) networks from the local TUXEDO System /T domain.

• It performs conversion between ASCII and EBCDIC encoding.

Supported Platforms

Table 1-1 lists UNIX-based and NT Windows platforms and corresponding SNA protocol Stacks on which BEA eLink for Mainframe SNA 3.0 is supported.

Table 1-1 Supported Platforms

Operating System Version	Stack Version	TUXEDO Version	WebLogic Version
AIX 4.2.1	IBM Comm Server 5.0	6.4 and 6.5	4.0
HP-UX 10.20	SNAplus2 5.1	6.4 and 6.5	4.0
HP-UX 10.20	SNAplus2 6.0	6.4 and 6.5	4.0
HP-UX 11.00	SNAplus2 6.0	6.4 and 6.5	4.0
NT 4.0	IBM Comm Server 5.0 and 6.0 for Windows NT	6.4 and 6.5	4.0
Solaris 2.5.1	DCL SNAP-IX 6.0	6.4 and 6.5	4.0
Solaris 2.5.1	SUN Link 9.1 1	6.4 and 6.5	4.0
Solaris 2.5.1	Brixton 4.11	6.4 and 6.5	4.0
Solaris 2.6	Brixton 4.11	6.4 and 6.5	4.0
Solaris 2.6	DCL SNAP-IX 6.01	6.4 and 6.5	4.0
Solaris 2.6	SUN Link 9.11	6.4 and 6.5	4.0