IBM IMS. Best Practices. IMS TM integration solutions: Approaches and options. Haley Fung Yee-Rong Lai Jenny Hung Shyh-Mei Ho

Transcription

1 IBM IMS Best Practices IMS TM integration solutions: Approaches and options Haley Fung Yee-Rong Lai Jenny Hung Shyh-Mei Ho Issued: September 30, 2013

2 Executive Summary...3 Introduction...4 Mapping existing integration solutions by data protocol and capability...4 IBM servers for integration...5 Integration solutions by data flow...8 IMS transaction integration solutions by platform, data flow, and development tool...11 Summary...13 Appendix: Brief overview of products covered in this paper...15 DataPower...15 IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway...16 IBM Application Server (WAS) and JCA connectors...16 MQ and MQ-IMS Bridge...17 IBM Integration Bus...17 Process Server and IBM Business Process Manager...18 Transformation Extender...18 IBM Worklight...18 IBM Operational Decision Manager for z/os...19 IMS TM integration solutions Page 2 of 19

3 Executive Summary Many organizations face the challenges of identifying the best approach to integrate their IMS assets with other technologies to meet their complex business needs. The answer often depends on the integration needs and the IT architecture. Many IBM servers already provide built-in support for accessing IMS transactions today. In this paper, we first examine the data protocols and types of integration needs involved, and provide a list of related IBM servers and solutions for which they are most suited. We then examine the platforms, data flow, and supported tooling for each of the IMS Transaction Manager (TM) integration solutions. IMS TM integration solutions Page 3 of 19

4 Introduction Identifying your integration needs, your data protocol of choice, required data flow, and IMS application characteristics is the first step to determining your IMS transaction integration solution. In this article we will start by examining the data protocols and types of integration needs involved. Then we will offer a general recommendation of IBM servers that provide integration solutions for IMS transactions based on your primary usage. More details about the different solutions and their supported data flow and available tooling are discussed. Mapping existing integration solutions by data protocol and capability Choosing an integration solution depends on your existing infrastructure and integration needs. The following table (Table 1) describes the common data protocols involved and the integration needs they are most suited for: Table 1. IMS transaction integration solutions by data protocol Data protocol Description Integration needs Java EE Connector Architecture (JCA) Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Representational State Transfer (REST) A Java-based technology solution for connecting application servers and enterprise information systems (EIS), with a standard set of systemlevel contracts between the Java EE application server and a resource adapter that manage the connection, transactions, security, work, life cycle, transaction inflow and message inflow. A protocol that allows heterogeneous applications to discover and communicate with each other in a platform- and language-independent way. A protocol for simple web services and efficient exchanges of data through stateless applications, used in conjunction with JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), a You have an existing Java EE server or one of the IBM servers that needs access to IMS. Primary use is direct synchronous IMS access. You need to interact with partners or applications that require the SOAP protocol. Primary use is synchronous IMS access. You need mobile solutions. IMS TM integration solutions Page 4 of 19

5 Java Message Services (JMS) Roll-your-own (RYO) lightweight data-interchange format. JSON and REST are often used in mobile applications, mashup tools, or automated business processes. An asynchronous-based messaging interface for exchanging of data between computers using messaging services in support of Java programs. An approach often used when the organization already has its own implementations of solutions that handle the transactions, the security, and message flow. You have existing Java applications. You are using a Java EE/JMS-based application server. Primary use is asynchronous IMS access. You have an existing in-house server that needs a simple API to connect to IMS. IBM servers for integration Many IBM application servers already provide built-in support for IMS transaction access today. The following diagram (Figure 1) shows the available solutions by primary integration needs. Figure 1. Available solutions by integration need If you have an existing Java EE server (or one of the IBM servers) that needs web service or non-web service access to IMS, the Java EE Connector Architecture IMS TM integration solutions Page 5 of 19

6 (JCA) architecture with the IMS TM Resource Adapter is the best option for direct access to (inbound) or from (outbound) IMS. This option offers full Quality of Service (QoS). If you are required to interact with partners or applications in a platformindependent and loosely-coupled fashion by using the SOAP protocol, IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway is the best option for direct SOAP access to IMS. IMS SOAP Gateway supports both inbound to and outbound from IMS. IMS SOAP Gateway is a no-cost, light-weight server, designed to be the SOAP gateway for IMS. Note that it does not support the REST protocol. If you have needs for large-scale web service integration and mobile applications, DataPower is the ubiquitous network gateway that provides fast and secure web services and XML transformation. With the release of V6.0, it now supports both inbound requests to and outbound requests from IMS. If Enterprise Service Bus is your choice of technology, then IBM Integration Bus (IBM IB), formerly known as Message Broker, supports the best interoperability among heterogeneous services and data. If your key integration need is business process automation and choreography, then IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) supports inbound access to IMS transactions. If you need complex data transformation, then use Transformation Extender (WTX) for access to IMS transactions. For business rules, IBM Operational Decision Manager (IBM ODM) already supports integration with IMS. Besides the above solutions, if you have an existing in-house server that needs a simple API to access IMS, you can use a high-level API such as the IMS Enterprise Suite Connect API or MQ API that offers you the flexibility to integrate with your existing application interfaces. If you have an existing Java EE server or one of the IBM servers that needs web services or Java access to IMS, and you need a middleware to guarantee message delivery with full message recovery capability, then JMS with MQ is the best integration option. The following diagram shows the common solutions for accessing IMS transactions from external web services or non-web service clients for each of the data protocols or approaches. IMS Connect is the high-performance, high- IMS TM integration solutions Page 6 of 19

7 throughput strategic TCP/IP gateway to IMS that most of the solutions require. * WAS Application Server IBM IB IBM Integration Bus BPM Business Process Manager WTX Transformation Extender Figure 2. Approaches to integrate IMS transactions and assets by common protocols or approaches Optimized Local Adapter (WOLA) offers Java EE clients direct access to IMS through the WOLA APIs. IMS applications can also call out to IMS TM integration solutions Page 7 of 19

8 external Java clients through the WOLA APIs. WOLA must be on the same LPAR as IMS. With JMS, the messages can be routed through MQ IMS Bridge, a client to OTMA. If you have an existing in-house server that needs a simple API to access IMS, you can use the IMS Enterprise Suite Connect APIs to specify and configure connections and interactions with IMS Connect. For mobile support, the IBM Worklight mobile platform can be used between mobile clients and application servers with IMS adapters such as DataPower, IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway, Application Server, IBM Integration Bus, etc. DataPower can play different roles in mobile enablement, providing a REST service façade, a DMZ proxy to secure a mobile network, and seamless enterprise integration for IBM Worklight. With increasing demands for mobile support, providing enhanced mobile support for both IMS transactions and data through the use of lightweight data-interchange format JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) would be an area of focus in IMS for integration solutions. Integration solutions by data flow A key decision point in selecting your solution is the anticipated data flow whether IMS transactions are the target or the source of the requests. The following diagrams are graphical views of the different approaches for inbound requests to IMS and outbound requests from IMS. In these diagrams, we added generic Java EE servers since the IMS TM Resource Adapter can also be deployed in these servers as a resource adapter. IMS TM integration solutions Page 8 of 19

9 Figure 3. Approaches for inbound request to IMS IMS TM integration solutions Page 9 of 19

10 Figure 4. Approaches for outbound request (callout) from IMS Another IMS outbound scenario is for integration with business rules engine. IBM Operational Decision Manager for z/os provides built-in support for IMS transactions. IMS TM integration solutions Page 10 of 19

11 Figure 5. IMS transaction integration with business rules IMS transaction integration solutions by platform, data flow, and development tool In addition to data protocol-level considerations, supported platforms, available development tools, and the types of data flow supported (inbound to IMS, or outbound/callout from IMS) are often the first set of requirements you need to examine. The following table lists the supported platforms, data flow, and development tools for each of the solution. Table 2. Solutions by platform, data flow, and tooling Solutions Hardware & software platforms Data Flow Development tools DataPower Appliance or virtual edition Request to IMS Callout from IMS Sync* Callout from IMS - Async Transformation Extender Design Studio IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway Windows, Linux on System z, z/os Request to IMS Callout from IMS - Sync Callout from IMS - Async Rational Developer for System z Application Server IMS TM Resource Adapter Windows, Linux, Linux on System z, z/os Request to IMS Callout from IMS - Sync Callout from IMS - Async Any Java development tool, using the CCI programming interface. For enhanced and integrated IMS TM integration solutions Page 11 of 19

12 development with code generation, use: Rational Application Developer IBM Integration Designer WOLA z/os Request to IMS Callout from IMS - Sync Callout from IMS - Async IBM Integration Designer MQ with IMS Bridge z/os Request to IMS Callout from IMS - Sync Callout from IMS - Async Any development tool for the language of your choice IBM Integration Bus IMS TM resource adapter MQ IMS Bridge Windows, Linux, Linux on System z, z/os Request to IMS Callout from IMS - Sync Callout from IMS - Async z/os Request to IMS Callout from IMS - Sync Callout from IMS - Async Message Broker Toolkit Process Server / IBM Business Process Manager Windows, AIX, HP- UX, Linux, Linux on System z, Solaris, z/os Request to IMS Callout from IMS - Sync Callout from IMS - Async ** IBM Integration Designer Transformation Extender Windows, Linux, UNIX on System z, z/os Request to IMS Callout from IMS Sync Callout from IMS - Async Transformation Extender Design Studio IMS Enterprise Suite Connect APIs Java Windows and z/os; C -- Windows Request to IMS Callout from IMS - Sync Callout from IMS - Async Any Java, C, or C++ development tool IBM Worklight IBM Operational Decision Manager AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS, Mobile OS, Solaris, Windows AIX, HP, IBM i, Linux, Solaris, Windows, z/os Request to IMS Callout from IMS - Sync Callout from IMS Async Callout from IMS through ODM API IBM Worklight Studio ODM tools (such as Rule Designer) * Support for IMS synchronous callout is added in DataPower Version 6.0. ** For the callout scenario, use the inbound path provided in the J2C wizard in Rational Application Developer (bundled in IBM Integration Designer). IMS TM integration solutions Page 12 of 19

13 Summary To provide you with a clearer idea of what these solutions are and how they are different, the following table contains a high-level description of the products and the data protocols they support for IMS transactions integration. Table 3. Products offering integration solutions for IMS Transaction Manager connectivity Technologies/products involved Data protocol Description DataPower IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway Application Server IBM Integration Bus * Process Server / IMS Connect SOAP/XML, REST/ JSON An appliance-based ubiquitous network gateway with pre-built software and hardware combinations designed to provide secure web service and rapid XML data transformation and advanced security and Web service standards. IMS Connect SOAP A free-of-charge, light-weight web service server customized to handle IMS messages, with a provided management utility for server administration and web service deployment and management. IMS Connect + IMS TM Resource Adapter (embedded in Application Server ) Optimized Local Adapter (WOLA ) IMS Connect + IMS TM Resource Adapter (embedded in IBM Integration Bus) MQ - IMS Bridge* IMS Connect + IMS TM Resource JCA N/A (WOLA APIs) JCA, SOAP JMS, SOAP* JCA, SOAP A Java EE Connector Architecture (JCA) adapter solution providing Java applications access to IMS with integrated Quality of Service such as connection pooling, transaction management with two phase commit, and security management. An optimized local z/os adapter with cross-memory mechanism for high volume exchange of messages, with security and transaction propagation between IMS and WAS z/os. IMS and WAS z/os must be on the same LPAR. For universal connectivity and transformation in heterogeneous infrastructures, the Enterprise Service Bus solution for handling heterogeneous infrastructures, including both standard and nonstandards-based applications, protocols, and data formats. Providing business process choreography functionalities for IMS TM integration solutions Page 13 of 19

14 IBM Business Process Manager Transformation Extender IBM Worklight IBM Operational Decision Manager IMS Enterprise Suite Connect APIs Adapter MQ - IMS Bridge* IMS Connect + IMS TM Resource Adapter MQ - IMS Bridge* IMS Connect and an IBM application server, such as Application Server or IBM Liberty Profile N/A JMS, SOAP* JCA JMS, SOAP* HTML5, REST, SOAP Program call (must reside on the same LPAR) design, development, monitoring, optimization, and process integration. Extending Business Process Manager and Message Broker with advanced transformation and validation capabilities, allowing aggregating of disparate data and processing large volumes of data with one pass lookup, validation, and transformation. An open mobile application platform to extend business solutions for mobile devices, and provides a special adapter to IBM Cast Iron for cloud integration. A complete platform for managing and executing business rules and business events to automate decisions across processes and applications. IMS Connect N/A A programming interface for custom IMS Connect TCP/IP client applications to specify and configure connections and interactions with IMS Connect. MQ MQ - IMS Bridge N/A Enabling applications to communicate with each other across a network of different processors, subsystems, operating systems, and communication protocols, with support for two programming interfaces: JMS and Message Queuing Interface (MQI). * Using MQ - IMS Bridge to access IMS transactions from IBM Integration Bus, IBM Business Process Manager and Transformation Extender through the JMS and SOAP protocols were not discussed or shown in the earlier diagrams for diagram simplicity. This integration path is technically available in case of specific usage requirements. IMS TM integration solutions Page 14 of 19

15 Appendix: Brief overview of products covered in this paper For the rest of this paper, we ll provide an overview of the products that are covered. DataPower DataPower offers a purpose-built software and hardware combination solution designed to address the broad range of enterprise business requirements. The ubiquitous gateway, available as hardware and virtual editions, delivers rapid data transformation for cloud and mobile applications, and secured and scalable business integration. It combines hardware offloading, pipelined processing, and streaming to create a high-performance SOA engine. DataPower devices provide security, multi-protocol bridging, message content transformation, message routing, policy enforcement, and monitoring and logging functionalities with flexibility and interoperability with a wide range of enterprise assets. DataPower Integration Appliance XI52, for example, is the integration edition gateway, enabling IMS both as service provider and consumer of distributed services and applications. The IMS provider feature enables distributed services to drive an IMS transaction through DataPower. The IMS callout feature enables IMS to initiate synchronous calls to an external service following the ICAL protocol. The flexibility allows one or more IMS configurations, a.k.a. handlers, to be configured to a gateway setting with content-based routing. Together with the data transformation tooling, Transformation Extender Design Studio, DataPower offers any-to-any data conversion at wire speed to and from IMS applications. The solution modernizes IMS in a faster, more secure, and simplified way. For more information about DataPower Appliances, see the product website and their library page. DataPower can communicate with MQ, acting as a client or a server. For more information, refer to: er/0703_crocker.html DataPower can also communicate with JMS endpoints. For more information, refer to: n/1104_madan.html IMS TM integration solutions Page 15 of 19

16 IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway A no-charge offering for IMS customers, IMS SOAP Gateway provides the ability for IMS applications to interoperate outside of the IMS environment through the SOAP protocol. IMS applications can become web services or send requests to external web services, independent of platform, environment, application language, or programming model. IMS SOAP Gateway acts as the SOAP endpoint for IMS, communicates to IMS through IMS Connect, the TCP/IP gateway of IMS. SOAP Gateway does not provide all the quality of services (QoS) that a fullfledged web application server, such as IBM Application Server, would. However, it is designed to work with IMS transactions, and is smaller in size and in complexity. Secured transactions are supported through HTTPS with server authentication or mutual authentication, on either a per-web service basis or a per-message basis. For more information about IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway, see: IBM Application Server (WAS) and JCA connectors The Java EE Connector architecture (JCA) defines a standard architecture for connecting the Java EE platform to heterogeneous Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). IBM Application Server supports the JCA specifications for interfacing with mainframe transaction processing, database systems, and legacy applications not written in the Java programming language. The IMS TM Resource Adapter is a JCA connector that can be installed into Application Server and other generic web application servers to manage the connections, transactions, and security between the application server and IMS applications. The development version of the IMS TM Resource Adapter is included in various Rational or integrated development environment (IDE) for application development support. For more information about the IMS TM Resource Adapter, see the IMS TM Resource Adapter website and the information center. For more information about Application Developer and JCA connectors, see Chapter 10 in Application Server V8: Administration and Configuration Guide at: IMS TM integration solutions Page 16 of 19

17 MQ and MQ-IMS Bridge IBM MQ enables applications to communicate with each other across a network of different processors, subsystems, operating systems, and communication protocols. It supports two different application programming interfaces: Java Message Service (JMS) and Message Queuing Interface (MQI). Applications communicate by writing and retrieving application-specific data (messages) to and from queues, without having a private, dedicated connection to link them. MQ delivers the SOA messaging backbone that underpins and extends Enterprise Service Bus messaging. MQ provides a set of Java classes for JMS (also referred to as MQ JMS). The underlying Application Server serves as the SOAP endpoint for IMS. MQ-IMS Bridge allows direct access from MQ applications to applications on your IMS system. For more information about MQ and MQ-IMS Bridge, see MQ information center. IBM Integration Bus IBM Integration Bus, formerly known as Message Broker, is a robust, scalable Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) that enables the integration of data sources from a wide range of platforms across both service oriented architecture (SOA) and non-soa environments. IBM Integration Bus provides connectivity for both standards-based and nonstandards based applications and services, and is designed for universal connectivity and transformation in heterogeneous IT environments. The routing can be simple point-to-point routing or it can be based on matching the content of the message to business rules defined to the broker. IBM Integration Bus is built upon MQ and therefore supports the same transports. However, it also extends the capabilities of MQ by adding support for other protocols, including real-time Internet, intranet, and multicast endpoints. IBM Integration Bus is ideal if you have extensive heterogeneous infrastructures, including both standard and non-standards-based applications, protocols, and data formats, or you need to implement a wide range of advanced messaging or complex event processing, or you need extensive pre-built mediation support, or you have very complex transformation needs. IMS TM integration solutions Page 17 of 19

18 See the product website and information center for more information about IBM Integration Bus. Process Server and IBM Business Process Manager IBM Business Process Manager is IBM s follow-on offering for Process Server. It provides robust integration and scalability by leveraging mediation flows, SCA, and customizable quality of service and transaction recovery. With the provided business-configurable process performance dashboards, you can define and track KPIs and service level agreements in the context of BPMN processes. Various Industry Content Packs are available for increasing industry-specific business agility and improving core business processes. For more information about IBM Business Process Manager, see its product website. For a technical overview of IBM business process management offerings, see: 02_col_woolf.html Transformation Extender Transformation Extender extends Business Process Manager and Message Broker with advanced transformation and validation capabilities. It allows you to aggregate disparate data and information stores throughout your enterprise infrastructure to provide consistency and scalability without the need to write custom code. Transformation Extender provides a unique, graphical user environment that allows integration designers to visualize complex data types in graphical form, and provide powerful data processing and manipulation capabilities. It allows integration designer to integrate data of disparate types from disparate sources, and process them in their native environments, without the need to know the programming languages of those environments. For more information about Transformation Extender, see its information center. IBM Worklight IBM Worklight provides an open, comprehensive and advanced mobile application platform for developing, testing, connecting, running, and managing mobile and omni-channel applications. The Worklight server can run on application servers including Apache Tomcat, Application Server, IMS TM integration solutions Page 18 of 19

19 and Liberty Profile. It can connect to a variety of enterprise information systems over widely used integration technologies, such as SOAP, REST, SQL, LDAP, and more. IBM Worklight can be used between mobile clients and application servers with IMS adapters such as DataPower, IMS Enterprise Suite SOAP Gateway, Application Server, IBM Integration Bus, etc. IMS plans to deliver enhanced support for mobile applications interacting with both IMS transactions and data by integrating with the IBM Worklight platform for direct integration with mobile devices on the go! For more information about the IBM Worklight, see the IBM Worklight website and the information center. IBM Operational Decision Manager for z/os IBM Operational Decision Manager for z/os integrates business events and business rules to automate decisions across processes and applications. It provides a rules engine that can be accessed directly from IMS MPP, BMP, and DLIBATCH programs. With Operational Decision Manager, the definition of business rules are defined in business terms that business analysts can easily understand, and they can change the rules directly without having to go to IT. You can run Operational Decision Manager either stand-alone on z/os or within a Application Server for z/os environment through the z/os Optimized Local Adapter (WOLA). For more information about IBM Operational Decision Manager, see its information center and the Using IBM Operational Decision Manager Redpaper. IMS TM integration solutions Page 19 of 19