Chapter Contents
Previous
Next
Communications Access Methods for SAS/CONNECT and SAS/SHARE Software

SAS/CONNECT Tasks

System Administrator or User
To use the CPIC access method with a Windows 32s host for SAS/CONNECT, perform these tasks:
  1. Verify that you have met all your site and software requirements.

  2. Verify that the resources for the CPIC access method have been defined.

  3. Verify that you know how to set options in SAS software.

  4. Set the SAS/CONNECT options that you want.

System and Software Requirements for SAS/CONNECT

Ensure that the following conditions have been met:

  1. CPIC has been installed at your site.

  2. SAS has been installed on both the local and remote hosts.

The CPIC access method gives you access to an SNA network. SAS/CONNECT can use the Microsoft Windows Open Services Architecture (WOSA) standard (WinCPIC) or the CPIC 2.0 standard. Therefore, you should be able to use software from any vendor that supports these standards. To use the CPIC access method, you must install and configure one of the following packages:

Configuring the Underlying SNA Subsystem

Network Administrator
Before you can use SAS/CONNECT with the CPIC access method, you must first install and configure the underlying SNA subsystem using either of the following products:

For information about how to install and configure the Wall Data APPC engine, see Configuring the Wall Data APPC Engine.

Optionally, you may configure a remote host's symbolic name through CPIC-side properties. See Optionally Configuring CPIC Properties for this information.

Understanding SNA Server Terminology

Familiarity with these terms will help you when you talk to your network administrator about selection options.

LU (logical unit)
a device or program by which an end user (LU 6.2 applications program) gains access to an SNA network.

local LU
a named LU that is associated with a local host that connects to a SAS/CONNECT remote host.

remote LU
a named LU that is associated with the SAS/CONNECT remote host to which a local host attaches.

LU alias
an alternative name assigned to an LU (local or remote).

Setting SAS Options and Variables

You may set specific options in SAS to establish the connections that you want with SAS/CONNECT when using the CPIC communications access method.

You may specify an option in any of several forms, as follows:

Values for these options may contain up to eight characters, consisting of alphanumeric characters, the percent sign (%), the dollar sign ($), the pound sign (#), the at sign (@), and the underscore (_).

If you set multiple forms of the same option, here is the order of precedence that is followed:
OPTIONS statement
AUTOEXEC file
SAS invocation
SAS configuration file
DOS environment variable.

SAS/CONNECT Options

CPIC_LU62MODE
specifies the mode name that is associated with an LU-LU pair and determines session properties for that pair.

The default mode name is SASAPPC. Whether you assign a mode name to the option or you accept the default SASAPPC, you must define the mode in both the local session and the remote environment.

As an alternative, you may specify the node name through CPIC-side properties. See Optionally Configuring CPIC Properties for details. However, the option takes precedence over CPIC-side properties.

Consult your network administrator for advice about setting CPIC_LU62MODE.

CPIC_SECURE _NONE_
| _PROMPT_
| userid.password

set the CPIC_SECURE option in order to pass a remote host userid and password to a remote SAS/CONNECT host for verification. After the userid and the password have been verified, the connection to the remote SAS/CONNECT host can proceed.

Values that you set at a SAS/CONNECT local host follow:

_NONE_
must be set at the SAS/CONNECT local host. This is the default.

Setting _NONE_ does not establish secure sessions for connecting SAS/CONNECT local hosts.

_PROMPT_
must be set at the SAS/CONNECT local host.

_PROMPT_ specifies that SAS prompt the user for userid and password information. When prompted for a password, the input field is not displayed. Choosing to prompt for a userid and a password provides more security than assigning the userid and password to the system option.

userid.password
must be set at the SAS/CONNECT local host.

userid.password specifies both the userid and password. Assigning the userid and the password directly to the CPIC_SECURE option at the SAS/CONNECT local host may inadvertently publicize this information and compromise the security of the SAS/CONNECT remote host. Assigning the value to the variable in a file allows anyone to read it.

If the userid or the password contains numeric or special characters, enclose the entire userid.password in quotation marks.

Examples: 

options set=cpic_secure _none_;
options set=cpic_secure _prompt_;
options set=cpic_secure bass.timego;
options set=cpic_secure "bass.time2go";

See Setting SAS Options and Variables for examples of the forms that you can use to specify CPIC_SECURE.

The OS/390, CMS, and VSE platforms that are used as remote hosts for SAS/CONNECT require security. However, the OS/2 platform does not require security unless you have a user profile on the OS/2 computer.

As an alternative, you may specify these security features through CPIC-side properties. See Optionally Configuring CPIC Properties for details.

The following option settings take precedence over CPIC-side properties: 

-set cpic_secure bass.time2go
-set cpic_secure _prompt_

However, the following option setting does not take precedence over CPIC-side properties: 

-set cpic_secure _none_

CPIC_NET
specifies the network name to be concatenated with a remote-LU to generate a fully qualified partner LU name for APPN End Node (EN) that is capable of CPIC implementations. For example, specifying both this option and the remote-LU, which is used in the REMOTE or the SERVER option, causes a fully qualified remote LU name to be used. By using a fully qualified remote LU name in an APPN capable environment, no other partner configuration is necessary. The Wall Data Rumba APPC engine is capable of APPN EN.

CPIC_PARTNER_COUNT
specifies the maximum number of simultaneous remote hosts that this local session will have at any one time. This estimate permits better allocation of memory for resources for internal control block usage.

CPIC_CONFORMANCE
specifies a vendor's CPIC implementation conformance. The default conformance is adherence to the Wall Data Rumba APPC engine implementation. Use CPIC_CONFORMANCE to override this default conformance standard. If a vendor's CPIC implementation conforms to the WinCPIC standard (such as Microsoft SNA server), then specify it as follows: 
-set cpic_conformance wincpic

Otherwise, it is assumed that the vendor's package conforms to the CPIC 2.0 standard. Therefore, specify the optional CPIC 2.0 conformance classes (in addition to the Mandatory and Data Conversion Routines conformance classes, which are required).

Windows CPIC 2.0 Optional Conformance Classes contains the CPIC 2.0 optional conformance class names with brief explanations.

Windows CPIC 2.0 Optional Conformance Classes
Optional Conformance Classes Explanation
CNONBLOCKING CPIC 2.0 Conversation-Level Non-Blocking option set
QNONBLOCKING CPIC 2.0 Queue-Level Non-Blocking option set
SERVER CPIC 2.0 Server option set
SECURITY CPIC 2.0 Security option set
WINEXT CPIC Windows extensions option set

If a vendor's CPIC implementation conforms to the CPIC 2.0 standards, then specify the optional conformance classes that it supports as follows: 

-set cpic_conformance optional-conformance-classes

Note:   Use commas to separate multiple option classes. Put the options inside quotes if you specify them in a SAS session.  [cautionend]

Example: 

options set=CPIC_CONFORMANCE 
        'CNONBLOCKING,SERVER,SECURITY,WINEXT' ;

For more information about the CPIC 2.0 requirements, see CPIC 2.0 Requirements.

SAS/CONNECT Only Option

CPIC_SURROGATE_LUNAME

Note:   This option applies only when connecting to an OS/390 remote host.  [cautionend]

specifies an LU for a SAS/CONNECT remote session on an OS/390 host. If CPIC_SURROGATE_LUNAME is not defined, the OS/390 remote session dynamically selects an LU from the pool of LUs that is defined on the OS/390 host for this purpose.

Ask your network administrator for the name of the remote LU for the OS/390 host that you can use to assign to this option.

CPIC 2.0 Requirements

See the IBM publication Common Programming Interface CPIC 2.0 Specification to determine whether a particular software vendor is CPIC 2.0 compatible.

SAS uses only a subset of operations that are provided by the CPIC-C 2.0 standard. Refer to the following list of CPIC 2.0 conformance classes and SAS requirements that are put upon these classes.

Mandatory (Conversations, LU 6.2)
are required.

Data Conversion Routines
are required.

Conversation-Level Non-Blocking
is recommended, if Queue-Level Non-Blocking is not supported. Conversation-Level Non-Blocking and Queue-Level Non-Blocking are mutually exclusive. Set_Processing_Mode and Specify_Windows_Handle are used to set up a nonblocking callback mechanism. CPIC is expected to call PostMessage to post a message of "WinAsyncCPIC-C" to the window that is specified by the Specify_Windows_Handle call. The Specify_Windows_Handle call is not part of the CPIC 2.0 standard, but it is part of the WOSA CPIC (WinCPIC) standard and is required for SAS to use conversation-level nonblocking. SAS also uses the Cancel-Conversation conversation-level nonblocking operation. This type of nonblocking mechanism is used by the Wall Data Rumba APPC engine. Either conversation-level nonblocking or queue-level nonblocking is required for server function and is highly recommended for client function as well.

Queue-Level Non-Blocking
is recommended, if Conversation-Level Non-Blocking is not supported. Conversation-Level Non-Blocking and Queue-Level Non-Blocking are mutually exclusive. The Callback Function conformance class is included with the Queue-Level Non-Blocking conformance class. Set_Queue_Processing_Mode and Set_Queue_Callback_Function are used to process calls in a nonblocking mode. The Set_Queue_Callback_Function sets up a window posting mechanism in the Microsoft Windows environment. SAS also uses the Cancel-Conversation queue-level nonblocking operation. This type of nonblocking mechanism is used with a software package that supports CPIC 2.0 nonblocking without additional WinCPIC extensions. Either conversation-level nonblocking or queue-level non-blocking is required for server function and is highly recommended for client function.

Server
is required for server function. Initialize_For_Incoming and Accept_Incoming calls are used to accept incoming sessions in a nonblocking mode of operation.

Security
is optional. If not available, the SAS option CPIC_SECURE will have no effect; therefore, security must be specified in a CPIC symbolic destination table entry. See Optionally Configuring CPIC Properties for details.

Windows Extensions
is optional. This conformance class is not defined by the CPIC 2.0 standard. Specify it if the vendor's software package supports the WinCPICStartup and WinCPICCleanup WinCPIC operations. The Wall Data Rumba APPC engine is an example.

Because SAS requires the LU 6.2 conformance class rather than the OSI TP conformance class, the term "mandatory" is used to refer to the Conversations and LU 6.2 conformance classes. SAS also requires the Data Conversion Routines conformance class to be supported by the underlying CPIC software package. By definition, any package that provides a CPIC 2.0 implementation is required to support the Mandatory Conversations conformance class, as well as either the LU 6.2 or the OSI TP conformance class.


Chapter Contents
Previous
Next
Top of Page

Copyright 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.