Chapter 10: Asynchronous Interoperability, Part 3: Bridging with Host Integration Server

Overview

In the previous two chapters, we looked at Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) and WebSphere MQ ”with the goal of connecting both Java and Microsoft .NET clients to pass messages and to achieve interoperability between the two. Some of the approaches we used highlighted the challenge in connecting a Java client to MSMQ and in connecting a .NET client to WebSphere MQ directly. Although both can be done, as you saw, each approach has a number of drawbacks. For example, you could lose reliability or transactional support, or you might have access to only a subset of the required libraries.

In this chapter, we'll allow the clients to use their native message queue implementations (the System.Messaging namespace for the .NET client, and IBM's Java libraries for the WebSphere MQ client) and introduce a bridge that will connect the two queues together. The bridge that we'll examine is the MSMQ-MQSeries bridge, which is shipped as a component of Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000, a member of Microsoft's family of server products that evolved from a previous release named Microsoft SNA Server. Host Integration Server 2000 is designed to enable organizations to connect to existing infrastructure ”typically, host-based mainframe systems.

Included with Host Integration Server 2000 is mainframe terminal emulation (3270 and 5250 clients), the ability to access and print files on a host system, functionality to allow two-phase commit transactions between platforms, the ability to provide a single logon for hosted environments (by using the credentials from Microsoft Windows), and the ability to create a bridge between MSMQ and MQSeries ”which is the component that this chapter will cover. For more information on the details of the product itself, consult http://www.microsoft.com/hiserver .