Troubleshooting Guide

Table of contents

Redirector troubleshooting checklist

If you are experiencing problems with the Redirector, check the following:

  1. Verify that the inbound IP address and ports defined for the Redirector path are correctly defined as the destination in the client configuration.
  2. Verify that the outbound IP address and port defined for the Redirector path is the correct IP address and port of the Telnet Server.
  3. Test both ends of the Redirector connection:
    1. On a Host On-Demand client workstation, ping the Redirector IP address and hostname to verify that the workstation TCP/IP configuration is working. For example, if the Redirector workstation has an IP address of 255.123.123.3, type ping 255.123.123.3. If the work station has a host name of redirecotrws, type ping redirectorws.
    2. On the Redirector workstation, ping Host On-Demand client IP address and hostname to verify the server TCP/IP configuration is working.
    3. On the Redirector workstation, ping TN3270 Server machine, by IP address and host name to verify the server TCP/IP configuration is working.
    4. On the TN3270E server machine, ping the Host On-Demand Redirector by IP address to verify that the TCP/IP connection is working from the server end.
    5. Use nslookup.
    6. Make appropriate changes to the server, the client or the Redirector based on the results you receive.
  4. Type Netstat -a at a command prompt on the Redirector workstation to see if the ports are active.
  5. Type Netstat -a at a command prompt on the Telnet server to see if the ports are active.
  6. On the client workstation, use Telnet to see if the ports defined on the Redirector are accessible through the firewall and network from the client workstation. Consult your firewall documentation for more information. For example, on Windows NT:
    1. Click Start > Run on the client workstation.
    2. Type telnet and click OK.
    3. Click Connect > Remote system on the Telnet window menu bar.
    4. Type the host name of the Redirector in the Host Name field on the Connect window.
    5. Type the Redirector port (as defined in the Host On-Demand Session properties on the client) in the Port field on the Connect window.
    6. Accept the default TermType.
    7. Click Connect.

    Consult your operating system documentation for instructions on how to run Telnet on other platforms.

    If you receive no messages, the port is open. If you receive Connect failed with 'Host name', then the port is not active. Remember to disconnect after you test each port by selecting Connect > Disconnect from the Telnet window menu.

  7. If the client work station is having problems making a connection to the Telnet server through the Redirector, or if the client work station is having problems with the Telnet connection dropping, try the following:

    On the Redirector server, open a Telnet session directly to the same Telnet host that the clients are using to connect. If this Telnet session is disconnecting in a similiar way that the client work stations are disconnecting, then the problem may be a network or Telnet server problem that is unrelated to the Redirector. If this Telnet session from the Redirector server to the Telnet host stays connected even when the client workstation disconnects, this may indicate a problem between the Redirector server and client work station.

  8. On the Redirector workstation, use Telnet to see if the ports defined on the Telnet Server or other Redirector in series are accessible through the firewall and network. For example, on Windows NT:
    1. Click Start > Run on the Redirector workstation.
    2. Type telnet and click OK.
    3. Click Connect > Remote system on the Telnet window menu bar.
    4. Type the host name of the Telnet server or other Redirector host and the port you want to connect to in the Host Name field and Port field on the Connect window.
    5. Accept the default TermType.
    6. Click Connect.

    Consult your operating system documentation for instructions on how to run Telnet on other platforms.

    If you receive no messages, the port is open. If you receive Connect failed with 'Host name', then the port is not active. Remember to disconnect after you test each port by selecting Connect > Disconnect from the Telnet window menu.

  9. Check to see if the Redirector task is active by logging on as the Host On-Demand administrator through HODMain.html and using HODADMIN.
  10. Check to see if the Redirector is listening on the defined port by using the netstat command for your operating system.
  11. Check to see if the Service Manager is active. If the Service Manager is not active, the Redirector task will not be active. Use the netstat command to see if the Service Manager is active. If the Service manger is not active, start it.
  12. Check for messages issued on the client, especially COMM messages in the emulator OIA.
  13. Check for messages on the Telnet Server. Refer to your Telnet server documentation for more information regarding Telnet error messages.
  14. If you are using SSL on the Redirector under Windows or AIX with a self-signed certificate, verify that the Host On-Demand server key database and the CustomizedCAs.p12 file or CustomizedCAs.class have been created. Note that with a public authority, you do not need to create the the CustomizedCAs.p12 file or CustomizedCAs.class.
    1. To create the HOD Server Key:
      1. If any existing HODServerKeyDb.kdb, CustomizedCAs.p12 file, or CustomizedCAs.class exist, back them up to a different directory or delete them.
      2. Use Certificate Management to create a new CMS key database file (i.e. HODServerKeyDb.kdb). Enter a password for the key database. Make sure that you select to store the password to a file.
      3. Select Personal Certificates from the drop-down and create a New Self-Signed Certificate.
      4. Extract Certificate as a Base64 .arm file or binary .br file to /hostondemand/bin.
      5. Save the file to HODServerKeyDB.kdb in the \hostondemand\bin directory.
    2. To create the CustomizedCAs.p12 file
      1. Select Key Database File > New. Create a PKCS12 file (for example, CustomizedCAs.p12 in /hostondemand/HOD with the default password hod).
        When creating CustomizedCAs.p12, you must use the default password hod. Do not change this password.
      2. Select Signer Certificates from the drop-down menu and add the .arm certificate file. Label the certificate appropriately.
      3. Select Key Database File and save it as CustomizedCAs.p12. Replace the old file if it exists.
      4. Restart the Host On-Demand Service Manager.
      5. Modify or create a Redirector service with client-side security.
      6. Modify or create a session to connect to the above configured redirector with SSL enabled.
      7. Prior to connecting at the client, delete the temporary cache prior to starting the session and restart the browser.
  15. It is possible to bypass some potential Java problems that can occur when running Host On-Demand Redirector by passing some additional paramters to Java.
  1. If you are running the Redirector on the AIX platform, in the NCServiceManager-AIX.sh file, comment out the (#) default Java command and use the following Java command instead:
    #######################################################################
    # If running on AIX 4.3 and expect more than 1000 connections, use the
    # following invocation
    #######################################################################
    # ulimit -f unlimited
    # ulimit -d unlimited
    # ulimit -s unlimited
    # ulimit -m unlimited
    # ulimit -n unlimited
    java -DSSL_HANDSHAKE_TIMEOUT=8 -ms16M -mx128M -ss1600k -oss1600k 
    com.ibm.eNetwork.HODUtil.services.admin.NCServiceManager 
    /usr/opt/hostondemand &
  2. If you are running the Redirector on one of the Microsoft Windows platforms, update the JAVA options as follows. Make the following changes directly in the Windows Registry:
    1. Open a command window and run regedit.
    2. Locate the AppParameters key.
    3. Add the following parameters to the key before the -classpath parameter. (Make sure that you leave a space before -classpath and the additional parameters.) For example, on a system with one Gigabyte of memory:

      -Xrs -Xms256M -Xmx768M HKEY_Local_Machine system CurrentControlSet services ibmservicemanager

      where:

      -Xms<size> - Sets the initial Java heap size. Adjust this value based on the total memory on your machine.

      -Xmx<size> - Sets the maximum Java heap size. Adjust this value based on the total memory on your machine.

      -Xrs - Reduces the use of operating system signals

    4. Exit Regedit.
    5. From the Windows Control Panel, stop and restart the Host On-Demand Service Manager to make the changes active. If the Host On-Demand Service Manager fails to stop, go back and recheck the parameters you have changed.

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