Microsoft Host Integration Server (a.k.a. HIS) is a gateway application providing connectivity between

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

Windows networks and IBM

mainframe A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

and

IBM i IBM i (the ''i'' standing for ''integrated'') is an operating system developed by IBM for IBM Power Systems. It was originally released in 1988 as OS/400, as the sole operating system of the IBM AS/400 line of systems. It was renamed to i5/OS in ...

systems. Support is provided for SNA, 3270 (standard and

TN3270 The IBM 3270 is a family of block oriented display and printer computer terminals introduced by IBM in 1971 and normally used to communicate with IBM mainframes. The 3270 was the successor to the IBM 2260 display terminal. Due to the text ...

), 5250 (standard and

TN5250 IBM 5250 is a family of block-oriented terminals originally introduced with the IBM System/34 midrange computer systems in 1977. It also connects to the later System/36, System/38, and IBM AS/400 systems, and to IBM Power Systems systems running ...

CICS IBM CICS (Customer Information Control System) is a family of mixed-language application servers that provide online transaction management and connectivity for applications on IBM mainframe systems under z/OS and z/VSE. CICS family products ...

, APPC, and other IBM

protocols Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...

. Support is also provided for advanced integration with Windows networks and software, such as linking

Microsoft Message Queuing Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) is a message queue implementation developed by Microsoft and deployed in its Windows Server operating systems since Windows NT 4 and Windows 95. Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 also includes this component. In a ...

applications to

IBM WebSphere MQ IBM MQ is a family of message-oriented middleware products that IBM launched in December 1993. It was originally called MQSeries, and was renamed ''WebSphere MQ'' in 2002 to join the suite of WebSphere products. In April 2014, it was renamed ''IBM ...

, binding Microsoft DTC transactions with CICS, and cross-protocol access to Db2 databases on IBM platforms. HIS is the successor to Microsoft SNA Server. SNA Server was released in 1994, and was one of the first add-on products available for the fledgling

Windows NT Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems sc ...

. SNA Server was also included in

Microsoft BackOffice Server Microsoft BackOffice Server is a discontinued computer software package featuring Windows NT Server and other Microsoft server products that ran on NT Server. It was marketed during the 1990s and early 2000s for use in branch operations and for ...

. Similar gateway products were NetWare for SAA (defunct, ran on

Novell Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare. Under the lead ...

NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The original NetWare product in 19 ...

) and IBM Communications Manager/2 (defunct, ran on

OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 ...

). HIS has an active ecosystem of third party hardware (e.g. network adapters supporting

ESCON ESCON (Enterprise Systems Connection) is a data connection created by IBM, and is commonly used to connect their mainframe computers to peripheral devices such as disk storage, tape drives and IBM 3270 display controllers. ESCON is an optical ...

and Twinax connectivity) and software.

History

SNA Server 1.0

Initial version of SNA Server was released in 1994.

SNA Server 2.x

SNA Server 2.1 was introduced in September 1994, and included in BackOffice 1.0. SNA Server 2.11 was released in July 1995, added new features such as Windows NT 3.51 support. Version 2.11 was included in BackOffice 1.5/2.0. Version 2.11 SP1 was released on January 31, 1996, which included new features such as Distributed Gateway Service, support for TN3270E clients, and FTP-AFTP gateway.

SNA Server 3.0

SNA Server 3.0 was released on December 17, 1996. SNA Server 3.0 nearly doubled the capacity up to 5,000 users and up to 15,000 host sessions. Other major new features include SNA print service, single sign-on to AS/400s and mainframes, TN5250 service, support for TN3287 clients in TN3270E service. Version 3.0 was included in BackOffice 2.5. Service Pack was released up to SP4, which was released on November 1, 1996.

SNA Server 4.0

SNA Server 4.0 was generally available in January 1998, included in BackOffice Server 4.0/4.5. SNA Server enhanced its features to support more clients and protocols, including Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 3.x, DOS, and OS/2, with protocols of TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, Banyan VINES, AppleTalk, and Microsoft Named Pipes. Third-party solutions provide Macintosh and UNIX support. SNA Server 4.0 also included a new COM based integration technology called COM Transaction Integrator (COMTI, code-named Cedar), which enables easier integration using GUI and Web page. Snap-ins for Microsoft Management Console (MMC) were introduced to easily manage SNA Server, COMTI, and OLE DB Provider in single place. Service Pack was released up to SP4, which was released on march 5, 2001.

Host Integration Server 2000

SNA Server code-name “Babylon” was rebranded to "Host Integration Server" from this version and released on September 26, 2000. This version worked with Windows 2000, SQL Server 2000, BizTalk Server 2000, and Commerce Server 2000 to utilize the new generation of technologies such as COM+,

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

and

SOAP Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...

. The key new features include bidirectional application and data integration via enhanced COMTI and

OLE DB OLE DB (''Object Linking and Embedding, Database'', sometimes written as OLEDB or OLE-DB), an API designed by Microsoft, allows accessing data from a variety of sources in a uniform manner. The API provides a set of interfaces implemented using ...

support to 3270 I/O-based Customer Information Control System (CICS) applications, which was a result from strategic partnership with Microsoft and

Software AG Founded in 1969, Software AG is an enterprise software company with over 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries. The company is the second largest software vendor in Germany, and the seventh largest in Europe. Software AG is traded on t ...

. The new adapter was called "Software AG CICS 3270 Adapter for Host Integration Server 2000". Host Integration Server 2000 Web Clients were released to enable users to connect to 3270 and 5250 through HIS 2000. Host Integration Server 2000 was included in BackOffice Server 2000. Service Pack was released up to SP2, which was released on March 30, 2005.

References

External links

Host Integration Blog
- The latest announcements about Host Integration Server can be found here after September 2018.
BizTalk Server team blog
- Information such as release history about Host Integration Server between 2006 and 2018 can be found here.
Product Lifecycle Information for Host Integration Server

How SDLC devices are connected using DLSw

Introduction to SNA
Link defunct as of 2018-01-08. Windows software Network protocols Enterprise application integration 1994 software {{Compu-network-stub