Re: ddm and odbc problems -- MIDRANGE-L

Steve,

You may be too far along in your implementation to consider a design change.
Your best option may be to tune the network, or add bandwidth.  If this is
the case, then feel free to politely ignore my remarks.  After several
unsuccessful attempts at using ODBC over a WAN, I have finally given up.
DDM seems to be a close cousin to ODBC.

One design alternative I would have considered, is to store the image files
in GIF or JPEG formats, on an optical device attached to your AS400A
(Canada) system , and referenced by your AS400A database.  Then build a Web
application and deploy it on that same box.  Let users in NJ, and NY access
the application from their browsers, over an Intranet or the Internet.

Nathan M. Andelin
www.relational-data.com




From: "Steve Richter" <srichter@AutoCoder.com>
We just completed phase 1 of a W2K based image system install. 3 physical
locations: Canada, NY, NJ.  Image xref index file is stored on AS400A in
canada, Green screens on AS400B in NJ can initiate image print and fax
functions. AS400A and the W2K image server are in Canada, AS400B is in NJ,
the W2K image client and green screens to AS400B are in NY. All IP
connected,  cisco routers everywhere, all ethernet, frame cloud, 56kb
between NJ and Canada, 56kb between NJ and NY. Both AS400's are 720's. 500+
CPW. All AS400 are V4R4.

Here are the problems.

ODBC and DDM performance stinks. Green screen from NY to AS400B in NJ is
fine. Many users, sub second resp time.   A simple odbc trans from the NY
image client to AS400B in NJ takes 3-5 seconds. A slightly more complex odbc
tran to AS400A in canada from the same image client in NY takes 30-40
seconds.

DDM performance between AS400A in Canada and AS400B in NJ ( 56kb link) is
embarrassing. DDM *IP file is on AS400B and points to a file on AS400A. A
sfl pgm on AS400B displays 10 rcds per page. For each rcd, we SETLL to the
ddm file to see if a rcd exists in the file on AS400A.  Takes 70 to 80
seconds to dsply the sfl page. Without the SETLL to the DDM file, rolling is
sub-second. BRWPFM on the DDM file takes 20 seconds per page.

ADDSVRAUTE issues.

We have a lot of users that will run pgms that use the DDM file. Must run
ADDSVRAUTE for each user.  Allowing a group profile in ADDSVRAUTE, where all
the mbrs of the group pick up the USRID and PASSWORD of the group profile
would be better.

No WRKSVRAUTE cmd.  Is there an api that will list the SVRAUTE ?

Need a tgt ip addr and/or DDM file name to be added to the SVRAUTE table.
All the *IP DDM transactions of a user have to run with the same USRID and
PASSWORD. This effectively limits a user profile to *IP DDM'ing to only 1
remote system.

DDM error msgs should be better stated.  When the remote systems *DDM server
is not started, a "route to target not found" msg is reported. When your
SVRAUTE USRID is not authorized to the remote logical file, a "cannot add
mbr to ddm file" msg is received. When troubleshooting, I was switching to
another AS400 to simulate the errors I was getting, did not always remember
to CHGSVRAUTE and sometimes got a "library not found" msg even though the
lib did exist. A signoff/signon then reported the correct error msg.

Troubleshooting the performance problems is where I need help. The Canada
AS400A is the bottleneck and we dont have much access to that system. As a
comm line benchmark, 400KB of image file data was ftp'd from the image
client in NY to the image server in Canada. Took 8 minutes to run. 56kb
line.

I assume I cant run the *IP DDM in some sort of trace mode. Similar to
TRCICF in SNA/APPC.

Will a STRSST trace show me when the DDM transaction leaves the NJ AS400B,
when it arrives at Canada AS400A, then leaves Canada AS400A and arrives back
in NJ AS400B? Does STRSST show IP packets, with the ip addr and port nbr
visible ? Similar to how SNA STRSST trace shows the controller name and
device address before each SNA packet?

Do the cisco routers we use ( model 2600 ) have a service port trace option
similar to that of the IBM 2210 routers that we used to use? Where trace
data is written to the service port of the router for each packet that is
routed, and a pc ( or as400 ) that is attached to the service port can
record the trace data to a text file.

Is there network software that helps to troubleshoot network performance
problems like ours?  Show when packets arrived and departed each node in the
network ? FIltered by IP addr and port nbr?


Thank you MidrangeL list,

Steve Richter