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Chapter 5: CCITCP Configuration

5.1 CCI Support For TCP/IP

CCI over TCP/IP (CCITCP) allows an application to connect to another application (on another machine, usually, although it can be another process on the same machine) in two ways: directly, by specifying the TCP/IP address and port being used by the application you want to connect to (this is described in the Advanced Features section); or indirectly, by specifying a logical "Server Name" of the service you wish to connect to.

This second method allows the most flexibility: the applications can be moved from machine to machine without being altered; and the details of the machine they are running on are unimportant (as long as they support CCI and TCP/IP, of course). This flexibility is achieved by having an intermediate program which CCI can query when a connection request is made. This program contains or can obtain the necessary details to allow an application to establish a connection with another application of a given Server Name. This program is called the CCITCP2 registration daemon.

Before using CCI over TCP/IP (with or without using CCITCP2) there is some configuration that is necessary, described in the sections below.

5.1.1 CCI Support Modules For TCP/IP

In order to enable CCI support for TCP/IP three executable modules are provided:

5.1.2 TCP/IP Configuration

Before the CCI modules can work effectively the appropriate TCP/IP network hardware and software drivers must be already installed, fully configured, and working. Once the TCP/IP software is installed and configured, the network connections should be fully checked out using suitable utilities, such as the TCP/IP standard commands "ping" and "ftp", before attempting to use CCI over TCP/IP. Ensure that if hostnames are going to be used (as opposed to only dotted decimal IP adresses) that the Domain Name Server (DNS) configuration is correct and that the service is working.

Where an ethernet network is connected to a token ring network, ensure that TCP/IP is aware of the gateway by running "route add" or a similar command. Please see your TCP/IP vendor's installation and configuration guides for details of these steps.

Once you are certain that TCP/IP is fully configured and functional and that the machines which you wish to communicate with are similarly set up and reacheable, then the only other configuration issue that needs to be resolved is where (and whether) a CCITCP2 daemon will be run to enable these machines to contact each other.

5.1.3 Running the CCI Configuration Utility

If a CCITCP2 daemon is used to allow CCITCP clients and servers to establish contact then the "CCI Configuration" utility needs to be run first. It can be started by going to the "Configuration" group under the product startup menu item and selecting "CCI Configuration". Alternatively just run CCIINST from any Micro Focus Command Prompt.

The CCI Configuration Utility asks for the address of the machine in the reachable network which is running a CCITCP2 daemon. You can enter either a hostname or a dotted decimal format address. If you do not know the TCP/IP hostname or address of the system that the CCITCP2 daemon is running on, contact your system/network administrator.

The CCI Configuration Utility also updates the TCP/IP services file with values necessary for CCI to work over TCP/IP.

If you leave the hostname field empty, CCI assumes that the CCITCP2 daemon will be running on the local machine, and the changes to the services file are still made.

If the machine running the CCITCP2 daemon changes, you must rerun the CCI Installation Utility and change the hostname to the new value. If there are any Micro Focus processes running which were started before the value was changed (e.g Command Prompt, Integrated Development Environment, etc.) then these will need to be re-started before they pick up the new value.

5.1.4 Using CCITCP2

There only needs to be one CCITCP2 process active on a network in order for CCI over TCP/IP to work, as long as all machines have been configured (using the CCI Configuration Utility) to use it. Alternatively, multiple CCITCP2 processes running in the network can co-exist and can communicate between each other so that a machine configured to use one daemon can find an application registered with a different daemon in the network. For instance, it is possible for every machine on the network to be running a copy of CCITCP2 and be configured to use their own local copy to search for connections. This would, however, generate a lot more network broadcast traffic compared to having just one daemon which all machines are configured to use.

The CCI Configuration Utility needs to be run on a machine before CCITCP2 can be successfully started on it (enter a blank hostname if the daemon is run locally). Once started, the daemon will accept service registrations until the effective RAM available to the process is exhausted, or until it is shut down.

CCITCP2 can be started manually at any time (as long as it is not already running) by entering:

ccitcp2 

at a Micro Focus command prompt, or it can be started automatically at system start-up by including it in the startup folder. Alternatively, on NT, it can be installed as a service (see CCITCP2 as an NT Service).

5.1.4.1 CCITCP2 Search Order

If both the Server Name and Machine Name (see Application Configuration for a definition of these terms) are specified by the client application, the CCITCP2 process returns the machine and port address of the service specified to the client so that it can establish a connection with the named service. If the service is not found, an error is returned.

However, if the Server Name is specified but the Machine Name is not, the CCITCP2 process searches all the registered Server Names in the reacheable network in the following order until either the named service is found or an error is returned:

  1. The CCITCP2 process returns the address and port of any occurrence of the Server Name that is registered with it and is running on the same machine as the CCITCP2 process.
  2. The CCITCP2 process returns the address and port of any occurrence of the named service that is registered with it but is running on another machine.
  3. The CCITCP2 process returns the address and port of the first occurrence of the named service that is registered with any other addressable CCITCP2 process. Note that there is no guarantee which particular service this will be.
  4. The CCITCP2 process returns an error to the calling program if the named service still cannot be found. At this point the client will probably keep re-trying for a fixed amount of time, in case the service has been started after the client first began searching for it.

You can avoid the potential problem of producing an undesired connection from the third level search by closely observing the rules followed at the first two search levels or by using a unique name for each server process on the network.

5.1.4.2 CCITCP2 Troubleshooting

This section provides information that may be useful if you experience problems when using CCI over TCP/IP with CCITCP2.

"mfcobol port entry not found in services file" error

Run the CCI Configuration Utility on the machine receiving this error: this should automatically updated the TCP/IP services file with the necessary entries.

"Cannot find CCITCP2" error

Run the CCI Configuration Utility on the machine receiving this error. Make sure that the hostname or TCP address value matches that of the machine running the CCITCP2 process you expect to use, and that the CCITCP2 process is running on that machine. Use "ping" and "ftp" to make sure that the machine is reacheable using the address you have specified. Check that there are no CCITCP environment variables or CCI.INI file entries over-riding the value specified by the Configuration Utility. If the value has been changed recently, make sure that the failing process has been re-started since.

"Registered service found but could not make a connection" error

There are two main possible causes of this message:

"A CCITCP call has timed out" error

This most commonly occurs if the server application that the client is attempting to contact is not running at the time the client is started. However, it can also a be produced in a network topology which includes routers or bridges which have not been configured to allow CCITCP2 daemons to communicate with each other. For example, if a client fails to connect with a registered service as follows:

The CCITCP2 modules are designed to communicate with each other using the TCP/IP broadcast address mechanism. If this is not correctly configured, CCITCP2 cannot locate services registered with other CCITCP2 modules. If this happens, you should advise your system administrator.

System administrators should be aware of the following:

For CCITCP2 modules to communicate correctly, your network must be configured to pass broadcast packets to all areas that want to use CCITCP.

5.2 Advanced Features

5.2.1 Running CCITCP2 as an NT Service

On Windows NT you can run the CCITCP2 daemon as an NT service by entering:

ccitcp2 -i

at the Micro Focus command prompt. (You must be logged on as a user with Administrator privilege to do this.)

Once installed as an NT service, CCITCP2 can be started and stopped via the Control Panel in the usual way.

You can use the -c option to install CCITCP2 as a service and run it in debug mode so that a console shows services being registered and connections being made:

ccitcp2 -c

Note that if CCITCP has already been installed as a non-console service it will need to be uninstalled first. To uninstall CCITCP2 as a service, use the -u option:

ccitcp2 -u

The -? option lists the available CCITCP2 startup modes.

Note: If CCITCP2 is installed as an NT service, it will be started automatically when the NT system is re-started. If a non-service CCITCP2 has previously been added to the Windows Startup group, it should be removed; otherwise, Windows will try to start a second instance of CCITCP2.

If CCITCP2 is started from a command line with the -d (debug) option or installed as a service with the -c option, then pressing the F2 key will list the CCI services that are registered with the daemon. F4 toggles the echoing of the console output to the ccitcp2.log file in the current directory of the daemon.

5.2.2 Using CCI Over TCP/IP Without CCITCP2

5.2.2.1 Direct Connection and Starting Servers on Fixed Ports

A CCITCP2 registration daemon is not necessary if the CCI client application and the CCI server application establish a connection directly between each other. This can only be done when the server application starts up on a specific TCP port, and the client knows which address and port the server is using.

In a relatively static application enterprise environment where the server application location is well-defined and persistent, then using direct connection can have advantages over using a CCITCP2 registration process to help establish a connection.

Allowing a server application to listen on a known, fixed port means that clients can contact the server through a security firewall if a gap has been configured for that port and address.

A CCI server can support both direct connection and normal connection via a CCITCP2 daemon simultaneously. If a server starts on a fixed port, and a CCITCP2 daemon is present, then it will register a Server Name with it as normal, but in addition clients will be able to connect to it directly because the port it is using is known. If the CCITCP2 daemon is not present or reacheable then a fixed port server will still start successfully, but only clients who attempt to connect directly will be able to contact it.

5.2.2.2 Environment Variables and the CCI.INI File

A variety of environment variables and CCI.INI file entries can be used to customize CCI behaviour either on a machine-wide or per-process basis. Most users should not need to use either of these methods, but they are provided in case a greater degree of application control is required.

If more than one of the above methods is used for the same purpose or feature, the order of precedence that determines the behaviour is:

  1. environment variable
  2. CCI.INI option
  3. the original or default behaviour
5.2.2.2.1 CCITCP Environment Variables
5.2.2.2.2 CCITCP Options in the CCI.INI File

The CCI.INI file is only used by CCITCP if direct connection or a fixed port server is required. In addition, this configuration method is only recommended when the Server Name or Machine Name cannot be modified by the application that is using CCI, and the environment variable method described in the section above is also not considered suitable.

There are two possible sections in the CCI.INI file which are specifically used by CCITCP:

[ccitcp-servers]

which can have entries of the following form:

server_name=MFPORT:xxxxx

This is used exclusively to match a given Server Name server_name (see CCITCP Server Name Parameter for a description of valid values) with a fixed TCP port value xxxxxx.

The other CCI.INI section used is:

[ccitcp-targets]

which expects entries of the following form:

server_name=MFNODE:server_hostname,MFPORT:xxxxx

This is used exclusively by clients to associate a target Server Name server_name with a Machine Name value to the right of the "=" character (see CCITCP Machine Name Parameter for valid values and uses).

5.3 Application Configuration

CCITCP Client/Server applications use the CCI Server Name and Machine Name parameters to enable the CCI Client to specify the CCI Server with which to communicate.

The CCI Server identifies itself on the network by using the Server Name parameter. The CCI Client specifies the CCI Server using the Server Name. Additionally, if it only wants to find this Server running on a particular machine in the network, it needs to specify the Machine Name parameter.

5.3.1 CCITCP Server Name

Both CCI server and CCI client applications need to have a Server Name specified: server applications need to register themselves as available under this name (or what fixed port to use); and clients need to specify which server they wish to contact.

This can be any valid alphanumeric string (up to 127 characters in length). Names beginning with a ',' character, or including the consecutive characters ",MF" are reserved for Micro Focus use.

If you wish to have the server start on a fixed or known TCP port (see Direct Connection and Starting Servers on Fixed Ports), then this can be achieved by appending the string ",MFPORT:xxxxx" to the Server Name, where xxxxx is the decimal value of the port. This string is not used as part of the Server Name, but is interpreted by CCI so that the server uses the specified port for listening for incoming clients. If you do not wish the server to have any name (that is, clients cannot use CCITCP2 to contact the server, but can only specify it directly by using the Machine Name parameter) then the Server Name need only consist of this string.


Note: It is recommended that you do not use port numbers below 2000 as these may already be in use by standard TCP services. The maximum port value normally supported is 65535. Care should be taken not to use a port value that is already in use by other standard applications: check with the system or network administrator on valid port value ranges that should be used.


5.3.2 CCITCP Machine Name

This is a parameter that only needs to be specified by CCI client applications.

This should be the TCP address (either the hostname if DNS is enabled, or the dotted decimal address if not) of the machine you wish to restrict the client to contacting. If you know that the Server Name of the application the client is trying to contact is unique in the reachable network, or you do not care which server of this same name it connects to, then this parameter is optional.

If you do not wish to use a CCITCP2 daemon to resolve the TCP address and port that the server is using (see Using CCI over TCP/IP without CCITCP2), but want the client to contact the server directly, then the Machine Name must have the following form:

MFNODE:server_hostname,MFPORT:xxxxx

where server_hostname is the hostname or dotted decimal address which the server application is using, and xxxxxx is the decimal port value.


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