External system

Any business application that sends data to or receives data from Control Desk is an external system. You use the External Systems application to specify how the integration framework exchanges data with an external application such as the Tivoli® Software Knowledge Base Toolkit.

An external system record specifies how the integration framework exchanges data with the external application. External systems identify the queues to use, what protocol to use, and which enterprise service to use. You can use the External Systems application to perform the following functions:

• Name the external applications or systems that exchange data with the integration framework
• Specify the protocol that the integration framework uses to send data to the external system
• Identify the enterprise services to use when you import data
• Create interface tables

In the External System application, you also define the following properties for the external system:

• The endpoint that identifies how and where the integration framework exchanges data with the system
• The Java™ Message Service (JMS) queues that the system uses
• Whether the external system is ready to begin integration processing

The TAMITEXTSYS external system created for Control Desk includes six enterprise services defined for importing software catalog data.

You should configure the enterprise services for software catalog imports in the external system to use the inbound continuous queue. To enhance performance, the enterprise services for software catalog imports include a split tag that results in multiple, independent message processing. If the continuous queue is specified, the system retries the import if a message fails, because the database has yet to process a dependent message.

You can use the External Systems application to import software catalog data manually.