November 6, 2023 — Gravic Announces Shadowbase for HPE NonStop Version 6.801 (T1122^ABF)

HPE NonStop Shadowbase Version 6.801 (T1122^ABF) is a full release that includes a large number of new and improved features.

New License File Requirement

For customers upgrading from an older version to HPE Shadowbase Version 6.700 or newer, you will need a new license file because of an internal update to the Shadowbase License format.

• HPE Shadowbase customers must contact the HPE License Manager to obtain a new license file before installing/running this release.
• Direct Gravic Shadowbase customers need to contact Shadowbase Support to obtain the new license file.

Please note: to support interoperability between future versions of Shadowbase software, the message formats were extended with versioning information, which makes this release incompatible with release versions 6.699 or prior releases.  Hence, for environments where Shadowbase software interoperates across NonStop systems, all instances must be upgraded to Version 6.700 or newer at the same time.

Quick Tips for Upgrading

While every project is different and most will require proper planning, procedures, and documentation, the upgrade process typically includes:

1. Select a time window for performing the upgrade, preferably with little or no activity.
2. Gracefully shut down the existing replications threads using the AUDCOM SHUTDOWN command.
3. Restart replication using the new configuration files.
4. Shadowbase software will resume replication from where it was shut down.

Professional Services are available to help users migrate and upgrade to the newest version.

New Features

• SQL/MP Exact SYSKEY Replication
  • This feature is supported without the need for using ODBC or OSS (however, the existing method of using OSS and ODBC/MX remains supported).
  • For more information, see the HPE Shadowbase SBMXSERV portion of the Softdoc.
• Entry-sequenced SQL/MP Tables
  • These tables can be replicated via a unique index by using the KEYSPECIFIER DBS parameter, which allows exact and correct UPDATE and DELETE WHERE clause processing as the source to target “primary key” may not be the same.
• STATS Command Enhancements
  • Enhancements can additionally display the maximum value for certain lag statistics and applies to STATS COLL, QMGR, and CONS.
• ESTATS Command Enhancements
  • This command is updated to include new options (“BRIEF” & “LISTCOUNT” & “SORT”) for formatting output and limiting what gets printed.
  • These options can be used with ESTATS AUD and ESTATS DBS.
  • Replication of Enscribe Entry-sequenced files can be configured to use a non-unique alternate key, instead of just unique alternate keys. Please refer to the manual section describing this feature to understand exactly how positioning works when there are multiple records in the target file with the same non-unique alternate key values.
• Consumers
  • Consumers can handle timers in user exit code. The functions SBTIMERSTART and SBTIMERSTOP should be used to start and stop user exit timers. When the timer started by SBTIMERSTART elapses, the entry point USRXTIMEOUT will be called, supplying the same tag that was used when the timer was created.
  • New FILTEREMPTYTX parameter (for TCPIP architectures) will not replicate begin, commit, and abort events for transactions where all events have been ignored through SBMAP or a user exit.
• SBMAP
  • When replicating events using SBMAP, if an SBWHERE clause resolves to false, the event will no longer immediately be ignored. Instead, it will continue attempting to match to a map block where the SBWHERE clause resolves to true.
• DDL Command Replication (DCR)
  • DCR supports replicating events for Enscribe files using a new SBFUP utility.
  • See the HPE Shadowbase FUP DCR section for more details, and the HPE NonStop Shadowbase DDL Command Replication manual for more in-depth information on how to configure and use this new feature. FUP DCR-related parameters are listed in the “New and Modified SET CONS Parameters” section of the SOFTDOC.
• SBCOLL
  • SBCOLL supports splitting the replication of events from the same source table between multiple replication threads with the DBS parameters HASHBUCKETCOUNT and HASHBUCKETID. This feature aids Shadowbase in splitting replication traffic for “heavy hitter” files and tables across many replication threads to avoid “hot spot” areas.
• FETCHSOURCE DBS Parameter
  • When this parameter is enabled, the consumer will only fetch the source record/row if required, instead of fetching every compressed update. There is a new FETCHSOURCE option to force the consumer to fetch the source for every compressed update.
• Shadowbase Configuration Macros
• • SBBIDIR, SBBIDROS, SBUNIDIR, and SBUNDROS macros have new command input validation logic for easier configuration.

Problems Corrected

• Consumer Process Improvements
  • DBS DDL referencing to support differing DDL formats in the same physical file
  • Proper handling of “open error” #4 (where the file remains open)
  • Additional cross-parameter checking validations to verify interaction before starting
  • Startup and shutdown enhancements
  • Additional error message clarification for logging
  • RESOLVETRANS extensions when too many TX’s occur inside a Consumer process
• SBMAP Data Transformation 
  • Improved configuration syntax
  • Startup and shutdown enhancements
  • Supports all of the different signed PIC 9 variants supported by Enscribe
  • Enscribe record transformation improvements
  • DBS parameter improvements
• SBSQLCI & SBFUP DDL Command Replication 
  • Additional error message logging
  • Command logging
  • DBS parameter improvements
  • EMS messages related to the MPERRORACTION and FUPERRORACTION options STOP and PAUSE are now critical
• License Validation Enhancements
• CHECK DBS command logging improvements for BASE24™ environments
• Issuing a TACL SETTIME command on a system may cause an incorrect time to be reported by Shadowbase; this issue has been fixed

For More Information:

• Reference the SOFTDOC