SNA Communications Support

Personal Communications and Communications Server support Systems Network Architecture (SNA) type 2.1 nodes (including SNA type 2.0 and SNA type 2.1 support for logical units [LUs] other than SNA LU 6.2). This support lets you write programs to communicate with many other IBM® SNA products.

You can write programs without knowing the details of the underlying network. All you need to know is the name of the partner LU; you do not need to know its location. SNA determines the partner LU location and the best path for routing data. A change to the underlying network, the addition of a new adapter, or the relocation of a machine, does not affect APPC programs. A program might, however, need to establish link connections over switched SDLC connections.

When Personal Communications or Communications Server starts, it establishes local LU and logical link definitions, which are stored in a configuration file. The system management application programming interface (API) provides functions that control configuration definition and adapter and link activation. Refer to System Management Programming for information about these functions. Users can use the configuration and node operations functions while runs. Refer to Quick Beginnings and System Management Programming for more information about configuration and node operations.