Interoperability with IBM Host Systems

Network Integration Services

When implementing cross-platform interoperability solutions, the first step is to establish secure and reliable connectivity between network platforms. SNA Server integrates heterogeneous networks with IBM mainframe, midrange, and AS/400 host systems using two types of connections, server-to-host and client-to-server.

The server-to-host connections are the physical units (PUs) and logical units (LUs) that connect the SNA Server to the host system.

The client-to-server connections enable network clients and application programs to connect to SNA Server over the local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN).

Because SNA Server operates on Windows 2000 Server, it can support a wide range of clients and protocols and can scale to support the needs of large enterprise networks. Table 10.1 introduces the services that SNA Server provides on the network integration level.

Table 10.1 Network Integration Services

Network Integration Services	Description
Supported Host Systems	IBM Mainframe Systems; AS/400 Systems; Advanced System 36; System/36; System/38; and IBM compatible mainframe systems from Amdahl, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Tandem, and Unisys.
Server Capacity	Up to 3,000 users operating up to 30,000 concurrent sessions on each server.
Hot Backup and Load Balancing	Up to 15 computers running SNA Server can be configured to provide failover for each other. LU pools can be shared across up to 15 servers to provide load-balancing.
Host Connection Methods	Supports standard connection methods including Channel (ESCON and Bus and Tag), Twinax, Open Systems Adapter (Token Ring, Ethernet, FDDI), SDLC, X.25, and DFT.
SNA Remote Access Service (SNA remote access server)	Integrates the LU 6.2 transport with Windows 2000 remote access server.
Heterogeneous Client Support	Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Professional, Microsoft® Windows® 95, Microsoft® Windows® 98, Microsoft® Windows® 3.x, Microsoft® MS-DOS®, Macintosh, OS/2, and UNIX.
Protocol Support	SNA, TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, Named Pipes, Banyan VINES IP, and AppleTalk.
Distributed Link Service	SNA Server computers can share host connections with other SNA Server computers. Allows efficient tunneling of SNA data between SNA Server computers over standard WAN infrastructures such as TCP/IP-based networks.
Downstream Connections	Supports communications to PU type 2.0 devices using only SNA protocols. To downstream devices, SNA appears to be the actual host system, reducing host PU configuration requirements.
PU Pass-through Service	Full SNA-capable products can connect to the host by passing PU 2.1 or PU 2.0 data through SNA Server. SNA Server behaves like an IBM 3174 cluster controller.
Integrated Single Sign-on	Administrators can configure SNA Server to provide User ID and password information to the host based on Windows 2000 domain authentication credentials, eliminating the need to manage multiple sign-on combinations.
Password Synchronization	Supports third-party bi-directional password synchronization for ACF2, Resource Access Control Facility (RACF), and Top Secret security.
Data Encryption	Encrypts data streams between clients and SNA Server computers, isolating the transmission of cleartext data (required by many host applications) to the secure network environment in the data center.
LU Level Security	Administrators can give users access to LU pools or can restrict users to specific LUs.
Bulk Migration Tool for Host Security	Creates Windows 2000 domain accounts, enrolls users in the Host Security Domain, and synchronizes critical account information.