The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the fourth Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2010. The cumulative update model is used to package and release product fixes on a more consistent schedule.

HIS 2010 CU4 includes fixes for HIS 2010 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2010, including all the fixes that are in the previous HIS 2010 cumulative updates. Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

2691943 Cumulative update package 4 for Host Integration Server 2010
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2691943

You can download HIS 2010 CU4 via the View and request hotfix downloads link in the KB article. You would need to download the CU4 package that matches the HIS 2010 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

Thanks…

The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the third Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2009. The cumulative update model is used to package and release product fixes on a more consistent schedule.

HIS 2009 CU3 includes fixes for HIS 2009 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2009, including all the fixes that are in the previous HIS 2009 cumulative updates. Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

2667632 Cumulative update package 3 for Host Integration Server 2009

You can download HIS 2009 CU3 via the View and request hotfix downloads link in the KB article. You would need to download the CU3 package that matches the HIS 2009 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

Thanks…

We are pleased to announce that Host Integration Server 2013 is released to manufacturing!

Microsoft Host Integration Server 2013 enables enterprise organizations to integrate existing IBM host systems, programs, messages, and data with Microsoft class leading suite of server applications.

HIS 2013 is the ninth release and includes these improvements.

• Deploy on new platforms
  • Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012,
  • Visual Studio 2012, SQL Server 2012, .NET 4
  • IBM z/OS V1.13, i5/OS V7R1, MQ V7.5, CICS V5.1, IMS V12.1, Informix IDS V12.1, DB2 V10
• Use latest protocols and formats
  • DB2 client connectivity to SQL Server (DRDA Service)
  • Windows client connectivity to Informix server (OLE DB Provider)
• Increase enterprise dev and IT pro productivity
  • Transaction Integrator Configuration Tool and Visual Studio code snippets
  • DRDA Service and TI PowerShell modules, XML schemas for app.config and web.config files
  • Managed encoder and trace
  • TN3270 emulator and Host File Transfer Utility
• Improve performance and scalability
  • Transaction Integrator, MQ channel and host files managed runtimes
  • DB2 client transaction load balancing, bulk copy and bulk insert

Here are links to the technology and documentation.

• Release notes with list of new features and installation guide with list of supported IBM products are available on the Microsoft Download Center.
• On-line documentation is available on MSDN and TechNet.
• Evaluation copy is available on the Microsoft Download Center.
• Enterprise edition is available on MSDN and TechNet.

The HIS 2013 BPA and SCOM MP will be available in September.

The HIS 2013 Enterprise edition will be available for purchase on 1st September, licensed as supplemental technology to BizTalk Server 2013. See the BizTalk website for more information on BTS 2013 licensing.

The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the eighth Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2010.

HIS 2010 CU8 includes fixes for HIS 2010 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2010, including all the fixes that are in the previous HIS 2010 cumulative updates.

HIS 2010 CU8 includes 11 new fixes in addition to all the fixes included in the previous HIS 2010 CUs.

Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

2850493 Cumulative update package 8 for Host Integration Server 2010

You can download HIS 2010 CU8 via the Hotfix Download Available link. You need to download the CU8 package that matches the HIS 2010 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

Questions about how the TN3270 Idle Time setting works have come up over the years, so I decided that I should provide some details to help clear up how the timeout actually works. Hopefully, it will help provide HIS Server Admins with additional knowledge that will allow the best setting to be chosen for their specific environments.

TN3270 Idle Timeout

The TN3270 Service supports an Idle timeout setting, which defaults to 120 minutes, or 2 hours. This setting causes the TN3270 Server to disconnect a TN3270 client session, which has been idle for 2 hours. When this occurs, the TN3270 Service will send a message to the TN3270 client and log Event 603 "TN3270 Service Error 503 Session terminated due to inactivity".

The TN3270 Idle Timeout is a configurable value that is available under the Settings tab of the TN3270 Service Properties as shown here.

The Idle Timeout can be set to a specific value or it can be set to Infinite. A setting of Infinite is useful for TN3270 sessions that are idle for long periods of time (e.g. TN3270 print sessions) but need to be available for use at all times. The caveat is that it is a global setting, so it will affect all TN3270 sessions configured on the TN3270 Service. The result is that some TN3270 users may be locked out of their host sessions because idle (or abnormally disconnected) sessions will never be cleaned up. You may need to have your mainframe personnel reset the LU from the mainframe side to allow the user to reconnect.

TN3270 Idle Timeout Operation

When the "Idle Timeout" is reached for a session (LU), the TN3270 Service checks to see if there has been any activity over that session in the previous "Idle timeout period" (by default 120 Minutes - 2 hours). If there has been any activity during this time, the connection is kept open. If not, the connection is terminated. For this reason, the Idle Timeout period can be anywhere from the configured Idle Timeout setting to 2 times (2x) the Idle Timeout setting.

Below are some examples of how the Idle Timeout feature works. The following three scenarios demonstrate what happens when a client connection is not normally terminated (i.e. hardware failure, Network Failure, TN3270 Emulator process terminated, etc.). These scenarios are based on an Idle Timeout setting of 20 minutes.

Scenario #1
If the TN3270 Service detects there was activity at 8:41 A.M. and the Idle Timeout timer expires at 9:00 AM, the connection would not be terminated (assuming a 20 minute idle timeout setting) and the timer would be reset. If there were no activity for the next 20 minutes, then the connection would be terminated. This means that in this scenario, the "real" timeout would be 39 minutes instead of 20 minutes.

Scenario #2
If the TN3270 Service detects there was activity at 8:40 A.M. and the Idle Timeout timer expires at 9:00 AM, the connection would be terminated (again assuming a 20 minute timeout setting). This means that in this scenario, the "real" timeout would be 20 minutes.

Scenario #3
If the TN3270 Server detects there was activity at 8:59 A.M. and the Idle Timeout timer expires at 9:00 AM, the connection would not be terminated (assuming a 20 minute timeout setting) and the timer would be reset. If there were no activity for the next 20 minutes, then the connection would be terminated. This means that in this scenario, the "real" timeout would be 21 minutes instead.

In summary, the amount of time it will take to "timeout" an idle session is determined by when the inactivity starts in relation to the Idle Timeout Timer. This can be up to 2 times the Idle Timeout setting.

We have come across a couple of reports of the TN3270 Server logging the following event message when Performance Monitor is started:

Event ID: 702
Source: TN3270 Server
Description:
Windows API RegOpenKeyEx failed with error code 2L (The system cannot find the file specified.) in function OpenPerformanceData.

This can occur when the registry entries for the TN3270 Performance Monitor counters are not correctly defined.

In the most recent occurrence of this problem, the TN3270 Server was not configured for use via the HIS 2010 Configuration Tool. In this scenario, several of the performance monitor counter registry entries were added under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\TN3270\Performance even though the TN3270 Server was not configured for use.

When Performance Monitor starts, it attempts to load all of the performance monitor counter DLLs registered on the system, which includes tn3prf.dll, which is the TN3270 performance monitor counter DLL. Once tn3prf.dll is loaded, it attempts to read registry keys that are used to define the counters that the service provides. Those particular registry keys (First Counter, First Help, Last Counter, Last Help) are not defined under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\TN3270\Performance, so the Event 702 message is logged.

The problem does not cause any functional problems related to the TN3270 Server or to Performance Monitor, it just results in the event message being logged.

If you want to resolve the problem so that the Event 702 message is not logged when starting Performance Monitor, you can do the following:

1. Open an Administrative Command Prompt.

2. Run the following command:

      lodctr “c:\Program Files\Microsoft Host Integration Server 2010\system\tn3perf.ini”

This command loads the TN3270 Performance Monitor counters which resolves the problem that leads to the event message.

The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the sixth Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2009. The cumulative update model is used to package and release product fixes on a more consistent schedule.

HIS 2009 CU6 includes all released fixes for HIS 2009, including all the fixes included in the five previous HIS 2009 cumulative updates. HIS 2009 CU6 includes four new fixes. Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

2851596 Cumulative Update 6 for Host Integration Server 2009

You can download HIS 2009 CU6 via the Hotfix Download Available link in the KB article. You would need to download the CU6 package that matches the HIS 2009 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

Thanks…

The HIS 2013 Software Development Kit (SDK) was not included with HIS 2013 as it has been with all prior releases of Host Integration Server. The HIS 2013 SDK has been packaged as a separate download package. This allows updates to the SDK to be made available before the next release of Host Integration Server.

For those customers that use the Transaction Integrator (TI) feature, you will want to go through the ApplicationIntegrationStarterGuide sample because it provides most of the documentation that is available for the many new features in the HIS 2013 version of TI. This sample is located under the \Microsoft Host Integration Server 2013 SDK v1.0\ApplicationIntegration\WindowsInitiated folder after the SDK is installed.

The following link provides an overview to what new with TI in HIS 2013, but the referenced sample includes more details:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn148363(v=bts.80).aspx#AppIntegration

Thanks…

The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the ninth Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2010.

HIS 2010 CU9 includes fixes for HIS 2010 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2010, including all the fixes that are in the previous HIS 2010 cumulative updates.

HIS 2010 CU9 includes 13 new fixes in addition to all the fixes included in the previous HIS 2010 CUs. The majority of the fixes are in the Network Integration (e.g. SNA Gateway) feature.

Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

2897923 Cumulative Update 9 for Host Integration Server 2010 is available

You can download HIS 2010 CU9 via the Hotfix Download Available link in the referenced KB article. You need to download the CU9 pacakge that matches the HIS 2010 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the first Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2013.

HIS 2013 CU1 includes fixes for HIS 2013 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2013, including some fixes that were previously released for HIS 2009 and HIS 2010. HIS 2013 CU1 also includes functional improvements for the new Transaction Integrator Configuration Tool as well as for the Microsoft Service for DRDA PowerShell module.

Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

2908834 Cumulative update package 1 for Host Integration Server 2013

You can download HIS 2013 CU1 via the Hotfix Download Available link in the referenced KB article. You need to download the CU1 package that matches the HIS 2013 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

I ran across an error while doing some testing with Session Integrator in a distributed deployment scenario. By “distributed deployment”, I am referring to a deployment where you have a Session Integrator application running on a system that does not host the 3270 or LUA LUs that the application is using to communicate with the mainframe. The LUs are defined on another HIS Server system which is also the system where the Session Integrator Server service is running that the SI application will be using. The following is an example of the 2 server deployment scenario:

Application Server

• HIS 2013 Server
  • Configured with a Role of Secondary Configuration Server or Use Remote SNA Gateway
• Session Integrator application

HIS Server (SNA Gateway)

• HIS 2013 Server
  • Configured with a Role of Primary Configuration Server
    • This HIS 2013 Server doesn’t have to be the Primary Configuration Server if there are other HIS Servers in the HIS Subdomain, but it is for this example.
  • Host connection(s) to the IBM mainframe
  • LUs (either 3270 or LUA, depending on what you use in your environment) that the SI application will use to communicate with the mainframe application.

In this sample deployment, the SI application running on the Application Server uses the Session Integrator Client (SI Proxy) components of the Session Integrator feature to communicate with the Session Integrator Server service that us running on the backend HIS 2013 Server that hosts the LU(s) used to communicate with the mainframe application.

When I setup this type of environment and ran the LU0NET Session Integrator application included in the HIS 2013 SDK, the following error was displayed:

I knew for a fact that the LU that I was trying to connect to was available, so I started into normal troubleshooting to see what might be happening. Since Session Integrator uses DCOM to communicate between the Session Integrator Client and Session Integrator Server components, my first thought was that this might be happening due to a permission issue such as what I described in my Why does Session Integrator log Event ID 6 and Event ID 24 warnings? blog post. It turns out that this was not the cause of the problem. My next step was to enable Session Integrator Client traces via the HIS Trace Utility (histrace.exe) to see what might be happening. After I reproduced the problem with the traces enabled, I took a look at the Session Integrator Client internal (sicint1.atf) trace and I found the following trace statements when the SI Client was trying to connect to the SI Server service:

Try to create server object on SJACKHIS20131

Got handle 1ae66418 from server
Client providing cookie 0xa0a0a0a1

Failed to create session on SJACKHIS20131, hr = 800706ba

The 800706ba return code indicates RPC_S_SERVER_UNAVAILABLE. This indicated to me that the remote server where the SI Server service was running was not listening or not allowing communication over the network protocol/port being used. Therefore, I captured a network trace of the problem using Network Monitor to see what was happening on the network. What I found was that the Application Server was sending a TCP/IP Syn request to the remote HIS 2013 Server, but no response was being received. The Syn request was resent two additional times per the default TCP/IP retry behavior and then the connection attempt failed. This resulted in the error being displayed by the SI application.

This behavior led me to looking at the Windows Firewall settings on the two HIS 2013 Server systems.

First, I went to the HIS 2013 Server where the SI Server service was being used. The HIS specific firewall rules were enabled, but HIS doesn’t create a specific rule for the Session Integrator Server service. I decided to manually create an Inbound Rule for SIServer.exe (Session Integrator Server service) to allow TCP traffic over all ports to the HIS 2013 Server system to see if that would correct the problem.

Second, I went to the Application Server to modify the Windows Firewall settings to allow the Firewall to “Display a notification” when the firewall blocks a program from receiving inbound connections as shown here:

I did this just to see if I would see any messages when running the SI application.

After making these changes on the two servers, I ran the SI application again. The firewall on the Application Server displayed a popup message when I ran the SI application (LogonScriptClient.exe in this case) as shown here:

After clicking Allow access, the firewall adds two new inbound rules (one for TCP traffic and one for UDP traffic) for this application.

After enabling the new firewall rules, the SI application was able to connect to the SI Server service and it was able to connect to the mainframe application using the LU that was specified in the SI application configuration.

The summary is that to allow this type of Session Integrator distributed deployment to work, you may need to do the following depending on your firewall settings in your environment:

• Setup a firewall rule for the Session Integrator Server service to allow incoming TCP traffic from Session Integrator Clients that are running SI applications in the network.
• Setup firewall rules for the SI application on the Application Server to allow incoming connections for the application.

If the Session Integrator application and the Session Integrator Server service are running under different user accounts, then you may also need to setup the DCOM permissions as outline in the other blog post I referenced above.

Based on feedback from both internal and external sources regarding questions about what the latest updates (fixes) are for both Host Integration Server and the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for DB2 (which is included SQL Server Feature Packs), I created a page that lists the current updates fro these products.

I added the link to the Update Center for Microsoft Host Integration Server and Microsoft OLE DB Provider for DB2 page to the Host Integration Server Developer Center.

The goal is that the page will be updated when we release new Cumulative Updates for HIS and new fixes for the OLE DB Provider for DB2.

Hopefully, this new resource will be useful.

Host Integration Server uses two security groups to implement its security model.  The goal of the security model is to allow the runtime and administrators access to the appropriate HIS resources, but limited to only those resources.  This allows our runtime and administrators to operate as minimum privileged accounts (without the need to have local administrator or act as part of the operating system rights).

HIS Administrators group

This groups grants users the rights to manage and configure Host Integration Server.  The HIS Administrators group has the following rights:

• Rights to start and stop the HIS services
• Read/Write access to the HIS configuration
• Can be granted access to enable HIS traces by the local administrator

HIS Runtime group

This groups grants the HIS service account the rights needed by the Host Integration Server services.  The HIS Runtime group has the following rights:

• Run as a service
• Generate security audits
• Read/Write access to the HIS configuration
• Rights to generate traces

The following table contains various information about several versions of the DB2 Providers included with Host Integration Server (HIS) as well as the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for DB2 (DB2OLEDB) included in SQL Server Feature Packs.

As a side note for those that might not be aware, the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for DB2 included with SQL Server Feature Packs is based on the OLE DB Provider for DB2 that is included with Host Integration Server.

Here is an explanation of the information in each column of the table:

• Product– The product for which the rest of the row information applies to. For example, DB2OLEDBv1 is the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for DB2 V1.0 that was included in the SQL Server 2005 Feature Pack.
• File Version– This indicates the released file version of the DB2 Provider. If you were to install the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for DB2 V5.0 (DB2OLEDBv5) from the SQL Server 2014 Feature Pack, you would find that the file version of msdrda.dll is 9.0.2148.0.
• Supported for fixes?– This information indicates if the specific version is still in Mainstream support, which means that new fixes can still be provided for that version. “No” indicates that new fixes cannot be provided for that version. If the column contains a date, that is the date that the product transitions from Mainstream Support to Extended Support at which time new fixes will no longer be done.
• Dependent Product’s Lifecycle– This column lists product to which the DB2 Provider version’s lifecycle is associated with. This is pretty obvious for the DB2 Providers included with HIS because the HIS lifecycle applies. For the SQL Server Feature Provider versions, the lifecycle is associated with the lifecycle of the specific SQL Server version that that DB2 Provider was included with. The links take you to the product’s lifecycle information on http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle.
• DB2 for z/OS (Mainframe)– The versions of IBM DB2 for z/OS supported by this version of the DB2 Provider.
• DB2 for iSeries (AS/400) - The versions of IBM DB2 for iSeries (AS/400) supported by this version of the DB2 Provider.
• DB2 for LUW (Linux, Unix, Windows) - The versions of IBM DB2 for LUW supported by this version of the DB2 Provider.

* The DB2 Providers included with HIS 2010 were not supported for use with IBM DB2 for z/OS V10 or IBM DB2 for iSeries V7R1 when HIS 2010 was released. Support for these two DB2 versions was added later. We recommend that you have the current HIS 2010 Cumulative Update (CU) applied when integrating with these DB2 versions. As of June 2014, the current HIS 2010 CU is CU9.

You can refer to the Update Center for Microsoft Host Integration Server and Microsoft OLE DB Provider for DB2 to see the latest updates for HIS and the DB2OLEDB providers.

In addition, please refer to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle site for details on the various lifecycle stages.

For any of you running HIS 2009 in your environments, you should be aware that HIS 2009 has entered the Extended Support phase of its lifecycle as of July 8, 2014.

When a product is in Extended Support, it means that Microsoft Support still provides support, but new hotfixes will no longer be created for any new issues that are identified as bugs. In order to get new hotfixes, you would need to purchase an extended support contract.

The HIS 2009 lifecycle is available at http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=14033.

One final Cumulative Update (CU7) will be released for HIS 2009. The exact release date is not finalized, but it is targeted for sometime in August. The CU7 update will include fixes for HIS 2009 that have been done since HIS 2009 CU6.

If you are using HIS 2009, you should start planning on a plan to move a newer version.

Thanks…

The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the seventh and final Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2009. The cumulative update model is used to package and release product fixes on a more consistent schedule.

HIS 2009 CU7 includes all released fixes for HIS 2009, including all the fixes included in the six previous HIS 2009 cumulative updates. HIS 2009 CU7 includes nine new fixes. Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

2975320 Cumulative Update 7 for Host Integration Server 2009

You can download HIS 2009 CU7 via the Hotfix Download Available link in the KB article. You would need to download the CU7 package that matches the HIS 2009 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

As noted above, this is the final Cumulative Update for HIS 2009 because HIS 2009 moved to Extended Support as of July 8, 2014. Please refer to the HIS 2009 lifecycle page for details.

The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the sixth Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2009. The cumulative update model is used to package and release product fixes on a more consistent schedule.

HIS 2009 CU6 includes all released fixes for HIS 2009, including all the fixes included in the five previous HIS 2009 cumulative updates. HIS 2009 CU6 includes four new fixes. Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

2851596 Cumulative Update 6 for Host Integration Server 2009

You can download HIS 2009 CU6 via the Hotfix Download Available link in the KB article. You would need to download the CU6 package that matches the HIS 2009 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

Thanks…

The HIS 2013 Software Development Kit (SDK) was not included with HIS 2013 as it has been with all prior releases of Host Integration Server. The HIS 2013 SDK has been packaged as a separate download package. This allows updates to the SDK to be made available before the next release of Host Integration Server.

For those customers that use the Transaction Integrator (TI) feature, you will want to go through the ApplicationIntegrationStarterGuide sample because it provides most of the documentation that is available for the many new features in the HIS 2013 version of TI. This sample is located under the \Microsoft Host Integration Server 2013 SDK v1.0\ApplicationIntegration\WindowsInitiated folder after the SDK is installed.

The following link provides an overview to what new with TI in HIS 2013, but the referenced sample includes more details:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn148363(v=bts.80).aspx#AppIntegration

Thanks…

The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the ninth Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2010.

HIS 2010 CU9 includes fixes for HIS 2010 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2010, including all the fixes that are in the previous HIS 2010 cumulative updates.

HIS 2010 CU9 includes 13 new fixes in addition to all the fixes included in the previous HIS 2010 CUs. The majority of the fixes are in the Network Integration (e.g. SNA Gateway) feature.

Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

2897923 Cumulative Update 9 for Host Integration Server 2010 is available

You can download HIS 2010 CU9 via the Hotfix Download Available link in the referenced KB article. You need to download the CU9 pacakge that matches the HIS 2010 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.

The Host Integration Server Product Team has just released the first Cumulative Update (CU) for HIS 2013.

HIS 2013 CU1 includes fixes for HIS 2013 that were fixed after the release of HIS 2013, including some fixes that were previously released for HIS 2009 and HIS 2010. HIS 2013 CU1 also includes functional improvements for the new Transaction Integrator Configuration Tool as well as for the Microsoft Service for DRDA PowerShell module.

Details on the included fixes can be found in the following Knowledge Base article:

2908834 Cumulative update package 1 for Host Integration Server 2013

You can download HIS 2013 CU1 via the Hotfix Download Available link in the referenced KB article. You need to download the CU1 package that matches the HIS 2013 version (x86 or x64) that you have installed.