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B2Bi basic training

Day 5

Agenda
Day 5 Exercise: Outbound transfer The B2Bi client System properties, log files and housekeeping Advanced trading scenarios Active/active support

Exercise
Send an outbound file from Fruit to Apple, by putting the example file Order_ebmD01B_5k.xml in the application pickup directory Check the message tracker to verify the message has been picked up, processed and then delivered as expected Check the Apple partner delivery directory for the delivered EDIFACT file
Time estimated for this: 15 minutes

Exercise

Time estimated for this: 10 minutes

Create an outbound EDIFACT agreement for enveloping your outbound EDIFACT message. Open the matching inbound XML agreement and open the matching document agreement there. Go to the tab Out (out1 in some cases) and select to use outbound agreement. Select Deliver using best matching outbound agreement. Send an outbound file from Fruit to Apple, by putting the example file Order_ebmD01B_5k.xml in the application pickup directory Check the message tracker to verify the message has been picked up, processed and then delivered as expected. Check the Apple partner delivery directory for the delivered EDIFACT file and see that it has been enveloped.

The B2Bi client

The B2Bi client


The B2Bi client (Integration client) is a window into the workings of Integrator The main web UI you have used until now is managed by the web server in Interchange and it does not have any direct connection to Integrator If you want to look closer into what is happening inside Integrator you have to use the B2Bi Integration client

The B2Bi client


The B2Bi client is based on the Integrator client in Integrator v2 (just as the co-pilot in Integrator v3) Therefore it has its own user accounts. The normal B2Bi users set up in the web UI are not linked to the B2Bi client! Default login is
User: admin Password: admin

The B2Bi client


The client contains tools for monitoring and configuring the integration engine (Integrator) on a low level

The B2Bi client


We will only look at the tools used for monitoring and tracking here

EDI tracker
The EDI tracker is used for tracking EDI documents on the Integrator side. It complements the message tracker in the web UI that only shows the message activity on the Interchange side.

EDI tracker
You can define and save your own custom searches The search results are shown in a list. Double click on any message in the list to open the detailed view for that message

EDI tracker, message detail view

EDI tracker, message detail view


This shows all EDI related properties for the message You can view the content of the payload on different levels You can reprocess or resend the message (if you have rectified an error in the processing configuration or similar)

EDI tracker, show hierarchy


Right click on a message in the list to show the message hierarchy

Exercise
Open the B2Bi client and perform an EDI tracker search for the messages traded in the previous exercise. Open the detailed view for the messages to look at the EDI properties for the messages, and view the different payloads. Right click on the messages in the list and look at their message hierarchy. Estimated time: 10 minutes

Message log
The message log is quite similar to the EDI tracker, but is not EDI orientated, but instead transaction flow oriented. You can create and save your own searches here too.

Each message is associated with a unique loggerID. A message going through the integration engine may change its shape (mapping, splitting, enveloping). For each new form of the message a new loggerID is obtained.

Message log
Each log entry in the message log marks either a new loggerID or a log event triggered by the product (synch point)

Message log
A single click on a log entry in the top pane will show the related log events for that entry in the lower pane

Message log, hierarchical view


A double click on an entry in the top pane will open the hierarchical view for that entry When you look at the message log in hierarchical view, it is possible to see the complete chain of loggerID and log events and how each loggerID is related to its child loggerID and/or parent loggerID

Message log, hierarchical view

Message log, detailed view


A double click on a message in the lower pane will open the detailed view for that entry

Message log, detailed view


What info is displayed here depends on what type of entry this is. An EDI message will include all EDI properties for the message as well as the logger entry properties

Exercise

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Open the B2Bi client and perform a message log search for the messages traded in the first exercise today. Single click on the messages in the top list to see the different log entries for that message. Open the detailed view for some log entries to look at the message properties, and view the different attributes and possible payload. Repeat this for a few entries to see the differences. Double click on the messages in the top list and look at their message hierarchy.

Trace viewer
The trace viewer shows all trace messages from Integrator. A trace message is a non-structured message. It has no predefined form, and it is up to the program generating the trace to create the message. Trace messages are typically generated in two cases:
If an error occurs in a program it might generate a trace message detailing the error. If a program has been started in debug mode it might write informative trace messages about its actions. In this case, trace messages are continuously generated. To view them, you must define filters to restrict the amount of information displayed.

Viewing trace messages is helpful to troubleshoot problems on the Integrator side of B2Bi

Trace viewer
Just like the EDI tracker and the message log, you can define your own searches (as well as using the predefined searches)

Trace viewer
The trace viewer will update constantly with new trace log entries, if created and matching the filter / search criteria). To pause the trace viewer select View > Pause to stop the log display temporarily. The trace log continues to store entries but stops the view update. To activate trace viewer again click View > Activate. To clear the display of trace entries, click View > Clear Trace List. This clears the display only, not the actual log. To repopulate the display, select a new filter setting.

Trace viewer
Double click a line in the list to open that line in a separate window. Good for copy paste a specific error, or just to see the complete message.

Exercise

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Open the B2Bi client and perform a trace log search to see some trace log entries Double click on a few lines to see the full trace log message

System properties, log files and housekeeping

System properties
The system management page in the web UI will show the status of the system and have some additional tasks that can be performed from there. Most of them are self-explanatory or have a good description in the UI.

System properties, backup and restore


In B2Bi 2.x there is a function to perform a complete system backup. This was not the case in previous versions of B2Bi. There you had to do a system backup; backup all your communities and partners and make sure you had a backup of your maps, detectors and other processing components. This function is found on the system management page: Export entire system profile

Exercise

Estimated time: 10 minutes

Perform a system backup of your B2Bi system


Go to the system management page and select Export entire system profile Save the file

Restore the system from the backup


Choose Update (add objects that don't already exist, replace objects that do exist).

Log files
Interchange logs are located in {install_dir}\Interchange\logs and in sub directories thereof Integrator trace log files (as seen in the trace viewer) are located in subdirectories of {install_dir}\Integrator\data\trace Other Integrator logs are to be found in {install_dir}\Integrator\data\log

Housekeeping
B2Bi has two main places to set up how to manage old messages, so the message base does not grow too large (and start affecting the performance). One for Integrator and one for Interchange.

Housekeeping, Integrator
For Integrator you use the archiver to archive old messages. By default the archiver will simply delete old logger entries. Logger entries is how Integrator stores messages. Which is why we use the message log viewer to view our messages. You can set up your own script to backup your message entries before they are deleted.

Housekeeping, Integrator
The archiver configuration is found in the B2Bi client, inside the system profile manager, under the tab Logger config

Housekeeping, Integrator
Double clicking any of the B2Bi logger tasks seen there will bring up the archiver configuration for that logger. Here you can configure when to archive logger entries and also input your own backup script to be executed before the archiving.

Housekeeping, Integrator
Each logger task has its own archiver configuration In B2Bi 1.5 the archiver is configured via the Installer, in configuration mode. In B2Bi 1.4 there is no official way for the customer to configure the archiver. There are ways of doing it, but not through the supported tools for B2Bi 1.4

Exercise

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Reconfigure your first archiver to run at 1am on the first day of the month. Configure the following archivers to run at 30 minutes intervals after that. Set the archivers to archive inactive logs that are older than 30 days.

Housekeeping, Interchange
In Interchange you can configure the trading engine to delete unwanted database records and files in the backup directory based on the age of the records and files In the B2Bi user interface, from the menu bar select Trading configuration > Manage trading configuration to open the Communities page. From list of tasks, select Configure purge dates for trading engine messages.

Housekeeping, Interchange
In the B2Bi user interface, from the menu bar select Trading configuration > Manage trading configuration to open the Communities page. From list of tasks, select Configure purge dates for trading engine messages.

Housekeeping, Interchange
Only database records and messages in a final state are deleted. A final state is when no more processing action is pending. Final states are reported in the message tracker as: Delivered, Failed or Resubmitted. You can choose to completely turn off purging of database records and backup files. This is not recommended for a production environment.

Housekeeping, Interchange
Purge events
You can configure the trading engine to delete unwanted database records for message-related events based on the age of the records

Housekeeping, Interchange
The default configuration is to delete database records for message-related events after 45 days. The system checks every 15 minutes to delete events that have reached the age threshold. The setting for deleting message-related events is best set to be identical to the age for deleting trading engine messages.

Exercise

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Set the message purge to delete messages older than 30 days.


Open the Communities page. From the list of tasks, select Configure purge dates for trading engine messages.

Set the event purge interval to 30 days. Disable both purges.

Advanced trading scenarios

Advanced trading scenarios


B2Bi has server capabilities for some protocols, like http and ftp
You can set up a server to listen for incoming connections for message trading Both Integrator and Interchange do have server listening capabilities. Slightly different functionality and different configuration through the UI

Advanced trading scenarios


EDIINT:
AS1, AS2 and AS3 Supported in Interchange

Security on the transports


SSL / TLS on many protocols, both as client and as server

MIME And much much much more!

Advanced trading scenarios


Not covered by this basic training. That would be a follow-up training. Dont be afraid of trying out new functions!
Most functions are nicely explained in the UI when you go to that page. More information is readily available via the Help for this page link under the help menu in the top right corner. There is documentation on the DVD and articles on the support web site to read.

Active / Active support

Active / Active
Active / Active clustering is a cluster of computers that are sharing the workload between them so that they should be able to get better and scalable performance. A cluster should also have failover functionality, so that if one or more nodes (computers) were to stop working for some unforeseen cause the other nodes in the cluster should take over the work that was supposed to be done by the failing node(s).

Active / Active
The failover functionality is the main purpose for B2Bi Active / Active. The performance gain is not so great when adding a node. This is mainly down to the fact that a file system shared over the network is many magnitudes slower than a local file system. B2Bi in Active / Active mode should manage a failure on one (or more) node(s), by having the remaining node(s) taking over the work and roles the failing node had. Some scenarios are supported failover, others are still disaster scenarios.

Active / Active
B2Bi supports Active / Active clustering starting in B2Bi 1.5 This relies on a common shared file system for storing messages and processing data between all the nodes
Only certain file systems are supported for this (for a list see the Axway support website)

The cluster relies on a shared database as well, to store trading information and configuration

Active / Active
There are two roles for the nodes to assume in the cluster:
System node. This node will run the B2Bi system tasks, such as logger tasks, timer tasks and keeping track of sequencing Primary node. This node is responsible for receiving and sending messages. (This can be done by other nodes as well though, all depending on protocol and configuration) Only one node can be system node at any given time Only one node can be primary node at any given time

Exercise
Set up an Active / Active cluster with an nfs share and an Oracle 11i database on Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Estimated time: 15 days

No, just kidding! Thank you very much for attending this week of training! Now go out and use your knowledge!

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