Posted by Richard Maher on 06/15/05 17:56

Hi,

It gives me great pleasure to announce the availability of the Beta Release
of the Alpha/VMS version of TIER3 V3.0 (Incorporating the MTS/DTC <->
hotTIP/DECdtm Transaction Management gateway. If you are willing to assist,
in anyway, with the testing/evaluation of this product then please let me
know and I will forward you a copy today. (No forms to fill in. No private
details to be divulged. Just enthusiasm!) There is also a new bugfixed build
of the VAX/VMS available kit for those who are interested. (The Itanium
version will just have to wait I'm afraid.)

I fully appreciate that there's not much people can do without complete
documentation for this (and I am busy in WORD as we speak trying to rectify
that situation) but for those self-starters out there, I simply give you the
option of jumping in now on what could, if not should, become the future of
VMS server application development.

Regards Richard Maher

"Richard Maher" <maher_rj@hotspamnotmail.com> wrote in message news:...
> Hi,
>
> I am seeking the help of volunteers to test some software that I've
> developed which facilitates distributed two-phase commit transactions,
> encompassing any resource manager (e.g. SQL/Server or Oracle) controlled
by
> Microsoft's Distributed Transaction Coordinator in a Windows2000
> environment, with any resource manager under the control of DECdtm (e.g.
Rdb
> (or Oracle via the XA Veneer)) in a VMS environment.
>
> [Yes, at some stage, I hope to sell this software and make money out of
it,
> so unless you have a large philanthropic streak or are simply a techie who
> likes to stay on top of Windows<->VMS connectivity issues, then you may
wish
> to look away now. But if you do choose to participate, then rest assured
> that I have no interest in your personal or company details. (Just your
> work-rate :-)]
>
> What differentiates my Transaction Manager software from existing
> Transaction Monitor packages that are already in the marketplace (and why
> you should be interested) is that it is based on the Transaction Internet
> Protocol TIP standard. (RFC 2372) For those of you who don't know, the
> beauty of TIP's "Two-Pipe" strategy is it's application-pipe (or
middleware)
> neutrality. Whereas most XA implementations mandate homogenous Transaction
> Monitor deployments (such as Tuxedo everywhere, Encina everywhere,
MQSeries
> everywhere, ACMSxp everywhere and so on . . .), hotTIP from TIER3
Software
> gives you complete freedom to choose the middleware product(s) that best
> suite your particular application and heterogeneous network needs.
>
> Would you like to talk to VMS with TIER3 Sockets, COM or DCE/RPC? BEA
> MessageQ, IBM MQSeries or HTML? The choice is yours and yours alone. But
> once you realize that you need to encase your critical transactions within
> the ACID properties of a true Heterogeneous Two-Phase Commit then you will
> come to the conclusion that you need a Transaction Manager that looks a
lot
> like this.
>
> Another drawback of traditional "One-Pipe" strategies is that they
preclude
> the run-time determination of transaction participants. (Functionality
> which may be advantageous in a wide-area or Internet based application.)
>
> Anyway, this is what I have: -
>
> On the Windows side, you need absolutely *NO* additional software! I'll
> reply to this note with a brief description of the COM+ and DTC functions
> that you would need to invoke in order to successfully push a MTS/DTC
> transaction to VMS. NB: These are standard Windows APIs that are fully
> documented on MSDN.
>
> On the VMS side, I have a VMSINSTAL saveset that (all zipped up) is some
> 150KB that I'm happy to e-mail to you along similar lines to the VMS
> hobbyists (non-commercial use) license. I'll reply to this note with an
> Internet Daemon (INETd) example of code that uses my software to cede
> transactional control, over an SQL insert into a Rdb database, to MTS/DTC.
> It's under 500 lines long and contains all of the DCL, 3GL, SQL required
to
> produce a working example of a TIP-2PC capable TCP/IP auxiliary server.
This
> example will insert a row into the MF_PERSONNEL.Employees table on the VMS
> side in co-operation with Windows2000 MTS/DTC client that is inserting a
row
> into the NORTHWIND.Employee table. Commit them all or roll them all back.
>
> So, in summary, If you'd like to volunteer to put hotTIP through it's
paces
> then simply reply to this mail.
>
> Regards Richard Maher
>
> PS. The following are a few functionality restrictions with the current
> version of my software that may effect your decision to participate: -
>
> 1) Transaction has to be started/mastered/coordinated by W2K MTS/DTC
> 2) Transactions cannot be PULLed from VMS and must be PUSHed from W2K
> 3) No cluster-wide recovery.
> (If a txn falls over after being prepared then you have to wait for that
> specific node to become contactable again even though that lovely RDM
> recovery job is sitting on another node protecting the database until my
> hotTIP TM tells it to commit or abort.)
> 4) There is currently no Alpha or Itanium version available. The Alpha
port
> is currently in progress but, for the time being, you'll either need a VAX
> or a VAX emulator on your PC.
>
>

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