Difficult C:D questions?

Day 14


Connect:Direct records almost everything in the Connect:Direct statistics.  The statistics can be queried by using the Connect:Direct command line program “direct”, or more friendly programs such as the Connect:Direct Requester, or the browser interface, and even Sterling Control Center (SCC).

The statistics can be queried for information regarding a particular process or in general for errors and even for evidence of compliance to standards etc.

Some queries however are not possible to express in the Connect:Direct command line and difficult in the other tools mentioned earlier.

Some of these more difficult queries are listed below:

• What is the maximum number of concurrent sessions being used, at what time and which nodes had the lion share of the sessions?
• Which transfers are not secured using Secure+?
• Which nodes are using self signed digital certificates?
• What was the total volume of data transferred ordered by remote node?
• When is the least busiest time on this Connect:Direct node?
• Which remote nodes are triggering local scripts/processes?
• What are the transfers that have had a failure, but have not been successfully transmitted later?

The reason why these and other queries are difficult to express in the Connect:Direct command line is that the Connect:Direct statistics contain information that you can not get at with the Connect:Direct command line.

If you have ever taken a look at the Connect:Direct statistics files on UNIX you might not have liked what you saw:



STAR=20100902 17:00:03|PNAM=PULL|PNUM=98765|SSTA=20100902 17:00:03|STRT=20100902 17:00:03|STOP=20100902 17:00:03|STPT=20100902 17:00:03|SELA=00:00:00|SUBM=aaaacd@unx.aaaa|SBID=aaaacd|SBND=unx.aaaa|SNOD=CD.OTHER|CCOD=0|RECI=CTRC|RECC=CAPR|TZDI=3600|MSGI=SCPA000I|MSST=Copy step successful.
:
etc.



The above Connect:Direct statistic record is for a COPY statement within a Connect:Direct process.  It is just one long line with all the fields separated by the ‘|’ character.  Each field contains the 4 character name for the field name, an equals sign followed by the value of that field.

The 4 letter field names are documented in the “Connect:Direct for UNIX User Guide”.  You do not need to know them all.  Just use the ones you need when you need them.



PNAM is Process Name
PNUM is Process Number
PNOD is Primary Node Name
SNOD is Secondary Node Name
CCOD is Condition Code
SFIL is Source File Name
DFIL is Destination File Name
DBYW is Destination Bytes Written



A simple UNIX command can help make these statistics files easier to read

$ cat S20100902.047 | grep RECI=CTRC | tr '|' '\n'

The grep for records that contain the string “RECI=CTRC” filters just those records that are Copy Termination ReCords i.e. produced by a COPY statement.

Which produces something like the following:



STAR=20100902 17:00:03
PNAM=PULL
PNUM=98765
:
SUBM=aaaacd@unx.aaaa
:
SNOD=CD.OTHER
CCOD=0
RECI=CTRC
:
MSGI=SCPA000I
MSST=Copy step successful.
:
PNOD=unx.aaaa
SNOD=CD.OTHER
LNOD=P
:
CSPE=Y
CSPP=TLSv1
CSPS=TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
CERT=(/C=GB/ST=Cheshire/L=Congleton/O=A Global Financial Institution Plc/OU=Middleware/CN=CD.OTHER/SN=69009876789765456787654567667729)
CERI=(/O=Trusted Network/OU=Trusted, Inc./OU=Trusted CA/OU=www.trusted.org/SN=78ee48de185b2071c9c9c3b51d7bddc1)
SFIL=\share123\outgoing\AAAAAA.123456.DAT
:
DFIL=/data/projectx/from_agfi/AAAAAA.123456.DAT
:
DBYW=1161
:
etc.



Now we know the format of the stats records and we have an easier way to view them we can write some shell functions to help us with some of our tasks with Connect:Direct on UNIX and even with these more difficult questions.

Next we will look at one of those questions and how it can be answered in more detail.

The new FileAgent

Day 13

The latest version of Sterling Commerce’s FileAgent is v1.3, and is a welcome release.  It has several features that were lacking in the past.  Several of these features will come as welcome relief to support staff of large deployments of C:D & FileAgent.

Text configuration file

The first feature of note is that the configuration of FileAgent which is normally stored in a binary .ser file can now also be stored as a text file.  This is important especially for support staff as there maybe many many rules and finding the rule that applies a certain pattern match may be difficult if the name of the rule is not a good clue.  Searching the text configuration can be a lot quicker that hunting the various levels of the configuration using the GUI.

However, please note that this textual representation of the binary .ser configuration file is not something that can then be used to generate a binary .ser file.  It is more akin to documentation.

If you have chosen to save the configuration as text, then FileAgent will keep the textual configuration and the binary .ser in sync.

Sterling Control Center

FileAgent can now be monitored by Sterling Control Center (SCC).  This is done by configuring both the FileAgent to send SNMP traps when there is a problem and SCC to receive them, and to be notified of the problem.  This is another feature which will please the support teams.

Dynamic Configuration

In previous versions of FileAgent any change to the configuration meant having to stop/re-start the FileAgent which was usually an inconvenience.  in this version of FileAgent you can choose whether the saved configuration file will be noticed by FileAgent when it has been modified and the new configuration activated immediately.  This feature will be valuable where FileAgent is kept very busy due to the volume of new files to process.

Sub-directory watching

In previous versions of FileAgent all sub-directories of the watch directories would be scanned for candidate files.  If you did not want this to happen you had to include the path of the watch directory in your rules with a pattern to match only those files found in that directory only. Now in the new version you can choose whether you want that functionality or if you prefer you can disable it.

This is a useful feature as too many directories may be scanned constantly unnecessarily.  This can happen if staff unaware of how FileAgent works start creating archive directories under the watch directories. In this case FileAgent would see the archive files as candidates that match some rule or other and process them accordingly, which is probably not what you intended.

Conclusion

I have yet to try out this latest version of FileAgent, but I look forward to seeing these new features put to good use.

I’ll keep you posted as I learn more from using this latest version.

Driving the Connect:Direct command line

Day 12

So last time I showed you how to use the Connect:Direct SDK OLE/COM interface to Connect:Direct in a VBScript example.

The following example is very similar to the previous one with a few exceptions.

Firstly instead of using the OLE/COM interface we are driving the Connect:Direct command line using the "Direct.exe" program.  We are also running the "Direct.exe" program hidden in the background.

You also won't see any signing on to Connect:Direct as this is taken care of using the "CD Client Connection Utility" to set the default node and user credentials which are picked up when we run the "Direct.exe".

The commands to be sent to the Connect:Direct command line are put in a temporary file and that file is supplied as a parameter when we run the "Direct.exe".

The text of the command that contains the Connect:Direct process is also a little different. In this script you will see it prefixed with the "submit" command, while in the previous script we called the "Submit" function of the "Node" object.

It is important to note that the Connect:Direct process contains the "MAXDELAY" statement if you want the script to wait for the Connect:Direct process to be submitted then run and get the return code.

If you do not have this statement in the process then the process will be submitted and that is all, before control is returned to the VBScript.  As submitting a process hardly ever fails the script could see a zero return code i.e. the submitting the process had no error, but when the Connect:Direct process runs and possibly fails the script will have finished and been unaware of the failure.

So usually for batch scripts you will want to specify the "MAXDELAY" statement so your script gets the result of running the Connect:Direct process and not just submitting it.

You may not want to specify "UNLIMITED", but some reasonable time-out figure such as "01:00:00" for an hour.

For the script below to work it must be placed in the same directory as the "Direct.exe" program.  

This is usually "C:\Program Files\Sterling Commerce\Connect Direct v4.x.00\Common Utilities" .  Where "x" may be different depending on the version you are running.

Both this and the previous script are examples of simple dynamic Connect:Direct process creation.  Later we will look at some more elaborate generation of Connect:Direct processes that apply to a wider range of applications.

---

' Windows Script Host Sample Connect:Direct Script using the CLI
'
' Includes ability to push and pull files to/from the other Node.

' Declare variables to represent objects

Dim fs, WshShell, tempDir, handle

' Connect:Direct condition codes values 

warningConditionCode = 4
errorConditionCode   = 8

'
' Function to either pull/push a file to/from another node
'                       
Function CDTransfer (pname, fromFile, toFile, otherNode, direc)

        If direct = "PUSH" then
                localOrRemote = "LOCAL"
                remoteOrLocal = "REMOTE"
        else
                localOrRemote = "REMOTE"
                remoteOrLocal = "LOCAL"
        End If

        ' Build the text of the submit command and the process

        txtProcess = "submit"                          + vbCrLf _
                + pname & " PROCESS"                  + vbCrLf _
                + "     MAXDELAY=UNLIMITED"             + vbCrLf _
                + "     REMOTE=" & otherNode            + vbCrLf _
                + "     HOLD = NO"                      + vbCrLf _
                + "STEP01 COPY  FROM ("                 + vbCrLf _
                + "     FILE=" & fromFile               + vbCrLf _
                + "     " & localOrRemote               + vbCrLf _
                + "     TO ("                           + vbCrLf _
                + "     " & remoteOrLocal               + vbCrLf _
                + "     FILE=" & toFile                 + vbCrLf _
                + "     DISP=(RPL))"                    + vbCrLf _
                + "PEND;"                               + vbCrLf _
                + "quit;"                             + vbCrLf

        ' Get temporary file names for input/output with the CLI
        inp=tempDir.path & "\" & fs.GetTempName
        outp=tempDir.path & "\" & fs.GetTempName

        ' Write the input to the CLI in a file
        set handle = fs.OpenTextFile(inp,2,True)
        handle.write txtProcess
        handle.close

        ' Run the CLI hidden, redirecting input and recording the output to a file
        cmd="%comspec% /c Direct.exe -z" & Chr(34) & outp & Chr(34) & " < " & inp
        CDTransfer=WshShell.run(cmd,0,True)

        ' Remove temporary files
        Set handle = fs.GetFile(inp)
        handle.Delete
        Set handle = fs.GetFile(outp)
        handle.Delete
End Function

Function CDSend ( pname, fromfile, toFile, otherNode )
        CDSend = CDTransfer ( pname, fromfile, toFile, otherNode, "PUSH" )
End Function

Function CDRecv ( pname, fromfile, toFile, otherNode )
        CDRecv = CDTransfer ( pname, fromfile, toFile, otherNode, "PULL" )
End Function

' Processing starts here

set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set tempDir = fs.GetSpecialFolder(2)
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

rtc = CDSend ( "SEND","c:\temp\input.txt", "c:\temp\output.txt", "CD.OTHER")

if rtc > warningConditionCode then
        wscript.echo "Send Failed"
        'Return the completon code to the command prompt
        wscript.quit(rtc)
End If

rtc = CDRecv ( "RECEIVE","c:\temp\remote.txt", "c:\temp\recv.txt", "CD.OTHER")

if rtc > warningConditionCode then
        wscript.echo "Recv Failed"
        'Return the completon code to the command prompt
        wscript.quit(rtc)
End If

---

OLE/COM & Connect:Direct

Day 11

Sometimes we want to be able to automate tasks with regard to Connect:Direct.  On Windows we could do this using batch files (.bat or .cmd), or with an application using the Connect:Direct Windows SDK.  My preferred way is to use some form of VBScript and the OLE/COM interface that the Connect:Direct Windows SDK provides.

That sounds more complicated that it really is.  I'll show an example Windows Script Host (WSH) script that uses the OLE/COM interface to connect to the local node and send/receive files  with a remote node.

Start by looking at the example below from the comment "Processing starts here" where you will see the creation of an object of type "CD.Node".  If my memory serves me well this is not well documented in the Connect:Direct Windows SDK manual.

Once we have an object that represents our local node in my case called "NICKE" we can make a connection with our credentials.  In this example the user name and password are empty strings and it makes the connection based on how the "CD Client Connection Utility" is setup.  This utility allows you to define several user credentials and which one is to be used as the default when none are given as in my example below.

The rest of the script then goes on to perform a transfer using the "CDSend" function to a remote node called "CD.OTHER", check for an error and then perform a receive of a file and then another check for an error.  Both "CDSend" & "CDRecv" make use of a generic function "CDTransfer" to perform a file transfer with the direction of the transfer passed as a parameter which is then used to generate a dynamic Connect:Direct process which is the submitted using the "Node.Submit" function and then the statistics for the process just submitted and executed are analysed and the highest condition code returned to the caller of the "CDTransfer" function.

At the end of the script the connection with the local node is disconnected and the "Node" object de-allocated.

The script below can either be run by double-clicking directly on the ".vbs" script in the file explorer or by giving the name of the script as a parameter to the "CSCRIPT.EXE" program as follows:

C:\> cscript cdvbsdk.vbs

In the next post I will an alternative method of driving Connect:Direct from VBScript.

---

' Windows Script Host Sample Connect:Direct Script. 
' 
' Includes ability to push and pull files to/from the other Node. 
 
Dim Node        ' Represents the Connect Direct Node we are using. 
Dim procs       ' A collection of process records. 
Dim proc        ' An individual process record. 
Dim stats       ' A collection of statistic records. 
Dim stat        ' An individual statistic record. 
 
' Connect:Direct condition codes values 
 
warningConditionCode = 4 
errorConditionCode   = 8 
 
 
 
 
Function CDTransfer (fromFile, toFile, otherNode, direc) 
 
        If direct = "PUSH" then 
                localOrRemote = "LOCAL" 
                remoteOrLocal = "REMOTE" 
        else 
                localOrRemote = "REMOTE" 
                remoteOrLocal = "LOCAL" 
        End If 
 
        ' The process text to be submitted. 
 
        txtProcess = "TRANSFER PROCESS"                 + vbCrLf _ 
                + "     MAXDELAY=UNLIMITED"             + vbCrLf _ 
                + "     REMOTE=" & otherNode            + vbCrLf _ 
                + "     HOLD = NO"                      + vbCrLf _ 
                + "STEP01 COPY  FROM ("                 + vbCrLf _ 
                + "     FILE=" & fromFile               + vbCrLf _ 
                + "     " & localOrRemote               + vbCrLf _ 
                + "     TO ("                           + vbCrLf _ 
                + "     " & remoteOrLocal               + vbCrLf _ 
                + "     FILE=" & toFile                 + vbCrLf _ 
                + "     DISP=(RPL))"                    + vbCrLf _ 
                + "PEND"                                + vbCrLf
 
 
        set proc = Node.Submit(txtProcess)             ' Submit the process 
 
        ' Get the statistics regarding the process that has now finished. 
 
        set stats = Node.SelectStats("SELECT STATISTICS PNUMBER=" & proc.ProcessNumber) 
 
        ' If any step in the process has a condition code greater than "warning" we have a problem. 
 
        highestConditionCode =0 
 
        For Each stat in stats
 
                if stat.ConditionCode > highestConditionCode then 
                        highestConditionCode = stat.ConditionCode
                End If 
 
        Next 
 
        If highestConditionCode > warningConditionCode then 
 
                CDTRansfer = highestConditionCode
 
        End If 
 
End Function 
 
 
 
 
Function CDSend ( fromfile, toFile, otherNode ) 
        CDSend = CDTransfer ( fromfile, toFile, otherNode, "PUSH" ) 
End Function 
 
Function CDRecv ( fromfile, toFile, otherNode ) 
        CDRecv = CDTransfer ( fromfile, toFile, otherNode, "PULL" ) 
End Function 
 
 
' ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
' 
' Processing starts here 
' 
Set Node = CreateObject("CD.Node")              ' Make the OLE/COM connection to Connect:Direct 
 
Node.Connect "NICKE","",""      ' Sign on 
 
exitcode = 0 
 
rtc = CDSend ( "c:\temp\input.txt", "c:\temp\output.txt", "CD.OTHER") 
 
if rtc > warningConditionCode then 
        wscript.echo "Send Failed" 
        exitcode = exitcode + rtc
End If 
 
rtc = CDRecv ( "c:\temp\input.txt", "c:\temp\recv.txt", "CD.OTHER") 
 
if rtc > warningConditionCode then 
        wscript.echo "Recv Failed" 
        exitcode = exitcode + rtc
End If 
 
' You need to disconnect from the Node or you will leave cscript or wscript processes hanging around 
Node.Disconnect 
Set Node=Nothing 
Wscript.Quit(exitcode) 

---

FileAgent: Wood from the trees

Day 10

So last post we were about to start the FileAgent and test our FileAgent rule and associated C:D process.  First check that your Connect:Direct server is up and running.   You can do this on Windows by using the "CD Admin Tool" that you will find in the start menu for Connect:Direct.  It will show you whether or not the Connect:Direct server is started by showing a green traffic light for up and running and a red traffic light for stopped.  You can start the Connect:Direct server by right clicking the traffic light for your node and selecting "Start".  You can alternatively use the "services" control panel to check/start/stop the Connect:Direct service.

 Start the C:D Requester as we will be using that to monitor the activity of Connect:Direct, and also looking at the statistics files for any possible errors.  Double click the "Process Monitor" in the left hand pane of the requester and fill in the form as follows.

Here you can see that I have set it to update the display of what's happening with Connect:Direct every second.  Also double click the "Select Statistics" in the left hand pane of the Requester and fill in the following way:

Here I'm saying that I want the last 5 minutes worth of statistics and I want that list of statistics updated every minute.  So if anything fails while I'm trying to get the FileAgent rule or process working I can find out what happened quickly.  I find it also convenient to tile the "Process Monitor" & "Select Statistics" windows which you can do by using one of the toolbar buttons on the right in the Requester window.

I also open a file explorer on the directory to be watched by the FileAgent.  In our FileAgent rule the source file should be deleted from the watch directory only after successful transmission of the source file to its destination.  I usually create a test file in the directory above the watch directory and update the contents and save the file before dropping it in the watch directory for FileAgent to see.

Above you can see I'm in the directory above with the candidate test file before dropping it into the watch directory "DataABC".

FileAgent looks at the watch directory every minute depending on the configuration and if it finds a candidate that matches one of its rules it records the fact and decides to come back in another minute to see if the file is still growing in size.  If so it waits again until it believes the file has been finished writing to by either a local application or if it was a file being received by Connect:Direct from a remote node.

So you should start FileAgent and then leave it a minute or so to settle before dropping the updated file in the watch directory.  Then you have to be patient and wait a couple of minutes more before you might see some activity in Connect:Direct.

Open a command prompt and navigate to the FileAgent install directory. In my case that is "C:\Program Files\FileAgent".  Although on Windows the FileAgent is installed as a Windows service with manual startup.  However for testing it is often easier to run the FileAgent from the command line in verbose mode and re-directing the output to a log file.

I waited for a minute or so and then updated the data file using my favourite editor and then copied the file into the watch directory. I then watched the "Process Monitor" window and saw the following indicating that the C:D process was being run:

When the "Select Statisics" window refreshed I found the following:

Here I have highlighted the statistic row of interest showing a record type of "CTRC" which stands for Copy Termination ReCord and a condition code "CC" of 0 indicating that the transfer was a success.  Double clicking on that row will give a more detailed view of the statistic record:

So there you can see a successful transfer of the file to the remote node.

You can stop the FileAgent that you started from the command line either by pressing the CTRL+C keys if you are in a hurry and not worried about properly shutting down the FileAgent.  If you were more concerned about that you would create a file in the installation directory of FileAgent called "shut" which signals to FileAgent it should shutdown.  I consider myself working in a test environment so I use CTRL+C as I am the only one using this particular environment.

If you were to look in the FileAgent.log file that the FileAgent created you will see why the option that created the information was called "verbose".  It is sometimes very difficult to see the wood for the trees when looking at this kind of output. I myself use an editor with syntax highlighting to help me more easily see the things I'm looking for.

 Here I have highlighted in green the fact that the C:D process was submited, and in the next few lines you see that submit command was accepted.  You can also see in the lines above that one that the FileAgent variables get substituted before the C:D process is submitted to Connect:Direct.

So that's FileAgent in a flash.  It can be a bit tricky to set-up initially, but it can save you from having to write batch/wsh/shell scripts and makes it easy for applications to send/recieve data without being too tightly coupled with Connect:Direct.  What could be easier than just moving a file into a directory for it to be sent on its way?  

In many cases you can just use the single Connect:Direct process template you saw earlier for any additional FileAgent rules you might add for Windows/UNIX destinations.  At a later date I will show you how you can use FileAgent together with a script to generate dynamically specialised C:D processes for a variety of platforms while keeping the FileAgent configuration simple.