A CCESS G ATEWAY338 Quick Reference GuideMirroring Billing RecordsMultiple Access Gateway units can send copies of credit card billing records to a number ofexternal servers that have been previously defined by system administrators. The AccessGateway assumes control of billing transmissions and saving billing records. By effectively“mirroring” the billing data, the Access Gateway can send copies of billing records topredefined “carbon copy” servers.Additionally, if the primary and secondary servers are down, the Access Gateway can store upto 2,000 credit card transaction records. The Access Gateway regularly attempts to connectwith the primary and secondary servers. When a connection is re-established (with eitherserver), the Access Gateway sends the cached information to the server. Customers can beconfident that their billing information is secure and that no transaction records are lost.This document describes the process used by the Access Gateway for mirroring billing records,and is organized into the following sections: “Sending Billing Records” on page 338 “XML Interface” on page 339 “Establishing Billing Records “Mirroring” {Bill Record Mirroring}” on page 101Sending Billing RecordsWhen there is a message (billing record) in the message queue, the system “wakes up” andperforms the following tasks:1. Stores the billing record in the flash2. Create an XML packet, based on the new billing record3. Send the billing record to the carbon copy server(s)4. Transmit the data currently stored in the flash, based on the specified retransmissionmethod (round-robin: A-B-A-B, or fail-over: A-A-B-B)The system stores the billing record in the flash so that the record will not be lost (for example,if the Access Gateway is powered down during transmission attempts.Billing records are sent to the carbon copy server(s) only after the records areplaced in the message queue. Carbon copy servers will not receive the recordsagain if a task for retransmitting to the primary or secondary server needs to beperformed.
