Sponsor connection changes in Host Integration Server

Starting with Host Integration Server 2000, Host Integration Server clients close their sponsor connections after five minutes and rely upon a "On Demand" (dynamic) sponsor connection. SNA clients before Host Integration Server 2000 used "persistent" sponsor connection.

After a Host Integration Server client establishes a sponsor connection to either an SNA server or Host Integration Server computer, the sponsor connection is closed after 5 minutes. This change was implemented because the client does not require a sponsor connection (by using port 1478) on a constant basis.

This has no effect on application sessions that communicate with the SNA/Host Integration Server computer by using port 1477. The only circumstances where this does not apply are:

• If an invokable Transaction Program (TP) is running on the client.
• If SNA Manager is running on an administrative client.
• If the SNA LU6.2 Resync TP service is running on an administrative client.

Under the preceding conditions, the client uses a persistent sponsor connection. After the On Demand sponsor connection is closed, it will only be re-opened by the SNABase when it needs to send an RPC request (for example, to locate which servers support the requested SNA/Host Integration Server resource). During this time, the client updates its Service Table (ST) whenever the connection is reopened, but then closes again after the five-minute timeout expires. There is no way to turn off the use of the On Demand sponsor connection.

For additional information about sponsor connections, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: