IMS Connect, OTMA super member, and IMS-to-IMS TCP/IP connections

IMS Connect supports the OTMA super member function with IMS-to-IMS TCP/IP communications. The OTMA super member function can help ensure availability and distribute workloads across IMS Connect instances.

For IMS-to-IMS TCP/IP communications, you can define up to eight connections from IMS Connect to an OTMA super member group. The connections are defined by the IMS Connect DATASTORE configuration statement. OTMA counts each connection as a target member (tmember). The connections can be from one IMS Connect instance or multiple IMS Connect instances.

If more than eight connections are defined to use the super member group, OTMA uses only the first eight connections. If IMS is restarted when more than eight connections are defined from actively running IMS Connect instances, the same eight connections might not be accepted into the super member group because the connections are joined randomly.

When a connection shuts down, either because it is stopped or IMS Connect is shut down, OTMA removes it from the super member group. If a connection is started, OTMA joins it to the super member group only if the group is not already full.

If a connection is removed from a full super member group, OTMA does not automatically add other connections that tried to join previously. To add a connection for an IMS Connect instance that is already running, either restart the connection or the IMS Connect instance.