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This article was written by Tanya Puntti for Database Application Development - Central Queensland University.

Criteria enterprise should use when choosing a transaction processing monitor

There are a number of different criteria enterprise should take into account when choosing a transaction processing monitor. These include the following:

• Costs: As with many business products, the prices vary.

• Resource compatibility: Enterprise should check to make sure the resources they already have are compatible with the transaction processing monitor they choose.

• Platform support: It needs to be noted that each of the transaction processing monitors mentioned in this report supports different operating systems. Enterprise should choose a monitor that supports the platform they are currently using or are familiar with and willing to change to.

• Internet support: If Internet support is a requirement, then choose a transaction processing monitor that supports this.

• Staff expertise: Transaction processing monitors are compatible with different programming languages. Therefore current staff expertise must be taken into account when choosing a monitor.

• Usability: Is the monitor easy to learn and use.

• Company future: Does the company who created the transaction processing monitor have a strong future and focussed on upgrading and improving their software as technology develops. This is an important factor to ensure the transaction monitor does not become redundant in future.

Analysis and commentary: A personal opinion concerning Tuxedo, Microsoft Transaction Server and CICS.

After researching three different transaction processing monitors I have come to the following conclusions:

• It is my opinion that Tuxedo is overall one of the highest quality transactional monitors with a big future especially due to its support of numerous different platforms. I found Tuxedo supports the highest amount of platforms of all three monitors.

• Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) is leading the way for integration of transactional concepts into the COM component model. However, a major disadvantage of using Microsoft Transaction Server is that it only supports Windows NT platform. It is my opinion that MTS was developed for a niche market and will gain a big percentage of the NT server market.

• CICS has its highest profile among the top fortune 500 companies, financial institutions and insurance companies. This coupled with the fact that recent developments have included support for Internet services and Java beans gives this monitor a healthy future.

Should all applications that involve transaction processing use a TP monitor?

Not all applications that involve transaction processing need to use a transaction processing monitor. Considering transaction processing monitors are typically used with very high volume transactions, there would be no use for them in environments that have just a few concurrent users at any time. It must be remembered that its true efficiency lies in managing processes. Environments with few users would not have a high drain on its processes and implementing a transaction processing monitor would not be viable.

Conclusion

This report has discussed in detail the role of transaction processing monitors within large database systems. Firstly it described a transaction as being a unit of work that is performed against a database. Then it explained how database systems can ensure transactions are processed reliably by following the ACID property. Next it showed how ACID properties are implemented through the use of locks, logs, two-phase and three-phase commit protocols. This report also explained the uses of transaction processing monitors within a large database system and showed the architecture of a system that uses them. Additionally, it studies three popular monitor products; Tuxedo from BEA Systems, Microsoft Transaction Server and CICS from IBM, including their features and benefits. Finally it discusses the criteria enterprise should take into account such as cost, platform support and expertise when choosing a transaction processing monitor and the why not all applications that involve transaction processing need to use a transaction processing monitor.

References

BEA Systems 2006, BEA Tuxedo® 9.1, viewed 29 September 2006, http://www.bea.com/framework.jsp?CNT=features.htm&FP=/content/products/tux/

Begg,C & Connolly, T 2002, Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation, and Management, Pearson Education, England.

Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, Client/Server Software Architectures: An Overview, viewed 23 September 2006, http://www.sei.cmu.edu/str/descriptions/clientserver_body.html

IBM 2006, CICS: Customer information control system, viewed 25 September 2006, http://www-306.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/

Krakowiak, S 2003, What is middleware, viewed 22 September 2006, http://middleware.objectweb.org/

Kroenke, D 2004, Database Processing: Fundamentals, Design, and Implementation, Pearson Education, New Jersey.

Micromax Information Services 1999, ‘TP Monitors’, viewed 28 September 2006, http://n-tier.com/articles/tp.html

Microsoft 2006, MTS Documentation, viewed 30 September 2006, http://windowssdk.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms704722.aspx

Nance, W 1997, Balance the load with Transaction Server, viewed 24 September 2006, http://www.byte.com/art/9706/sec6/art1.htm

Pachowicz, P, ‘Client/Server Architectures and Applications’, viewed 23 September 2006, http://teal.gmu.edu/~ppach/sp06/TCOM510-Part-1.ppt

Plew,R & Stephens, R 2003, Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 24 Hours, Sams Publishing

Skeen, D, Unblocking commit protocols, University California, viewed 26 September 2006, http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/590000/582339/p133-skeen.pdf?key1=582339&key2=6273669511&coll=&dl=ACM&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618

Strahl, M, Using Microsoft Transaction Server with VFP, viewed 22 September 2006, http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/mts/mts.htm

The Open Group, Standards Information Base, viewed 28 September 2006, http://www.opengroup.org/sib.htm#Transaction%20Processing%20Services