Distributing a connector agent

The following sections describe the tasks necessary to distribute a connector agent:

In this instructions, InterChange Server Express host computer refers to the machine on which you are running InterChange Server Express

Set up communication between the connector agent and InterChange Server Express

When you install an adapter, the Installer program automatically creates an installation of InterChange Server Express on the same machine as the adapter you are installing. If you want the adapter's connector agent to function in a distributed manner--that is, the connector agent is on one machine, and InterChange Server Express (and the collaborations that run as processes within it) is on another--you must tell the connector agent which InterChange Server Express it should use. This is done through the CWSharedEnv.bat file, or the CWSharedEnv.sh file, as follows:

  1. Obtain the IP address for the machine that hosts the InterChange Server Express you want to use.
  2. Locate the CWSharedEnv.bat file or the CWSharedEnv.sh file on the machine where you have installed the adapter. The file resides in the \bin folder within the folder where you have installed the Business Integration Express for Item Sync product for your adapter. By default, this location is: \\IBM\WebSphereItemSync\bin.

    On OS/400:
    /QIBM/UserData/Webbiics/bin

  3. Open the CWSharedEnv file in a text editor. Edit this line:
    set ORB_HOST=localhost
     
    

    Replace localhost with the IP address of the InterChange Server Express host machine. For example:

    set ORB_HOST=9.26.234.123
     
    

Prepare the agent host computer

Perform the following prerequisite steps to prepare the agent host computer for the tasks that follow in subsequent sections:

  1. Create a directory for the Business Integration Express for Item Sync software on the agent host computer.
  2. Create a subdirectory named connectors within the directory created in step 1.
  3. Create a subdirectory named messages in the connectors directory created in step 2.

Copy required files and libraries

Connectors depend on several files and directories to execute properly. Perform the following steps to properly migrate a connector agent:

  1. Copy the following files or directories from the product directory on the InterChange Server Express host computer to the corresponding directory on the agent host computer:
  2. Migrate the connector agent libraries by copying the entire directory for the connector agent from the connectors directory on the InterChange Server host computer to the corresponding directory on the agent host computer.

    For example, if the connector agent being distributed was that for the Adapter for JDBC, then copy the Jdbc directory into the \connectors directory.

  3. Copy the message file for the connector agent into the \connectors\messages directory within the product directory on the agent host computer.

    Connector message files have the same name as the connector and have a .txt extension. For example, if the connector agent being distributed was that for the WebSphere Business Integration Adapter for JDBC, then copy the JDBCConnector.txt file into the \connectors\messages directory.

Modify the connector agent environment

Connector agents require a number of pieces of information to run correctly, such as the name of InterChange Server Express, the name server, and the location of the supporting libraries.

Modifying the location of the InterChange Server Express directory

Connector agents need to know the location of the product directory to reference things such as the supporting classes that are required.

Take one of the following two approaches to configure the startup mechanism of the connector agent so that it can reference the location of the WebSphere InterChange Server directory:

If the remote connector agent is on OS/400, it is recommended that you use /QIBM/UserData/WebBIICS as the ProductDir. All of the shell scripts that ship with OS/400 already have the CROSSWORLDS variable set within each shell script.

Specifying the name server used by the connector agent

For connector agents to contact the InterChange Server, they must use the same name server as the ICS.

On the Linux platform, to specify the name server used by the connector agents, you can do one of following:

On the OS/400 platform, specify the name server for the connector agent by modifying the ORB_HOST and ORB_PORT variables in the /QIBM/UserData/bin/CWSharedEnv.sh file.

Name of connector agent and InterChange Server instance

For a connector agent to communicate with InterChange Server Express, you must configure it to reference InterChange Server Express by the proper case-sensitive name. Similarly, you must configure the agent so that when it starts, it is assigned the proper case-sensitive name for the connector as defined in the InterChange Server Express repository. Take one of the following three approaches to configure the startup mechanism of the connector agent so that it can reference the location of the InterChange Server Express directory:

Installing the IBM WebSphere MQ client on the agent host computer

Connector agents require the WebSphere MQ client. The client must be installed on the agent host computer.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2003