H OTS POT GATEWAY300 Quick Reference GuideMirroring Billing RecordsMultiple HSG units can send copies of credit card billing records to a number ofexternal servers that have been previously defined by system administrators. TheHSG assumes control of billing transmissions and saving billing records. Byeffectively “mirroring” the billing data, the HSG can send copies of billing records topredefined “carbon copy” servers.Additionally, if the primary and secondary servers are down, the HSG can store up to2,000 credit card transaction records. The HSG regularly attempts to connect with theprimary and secondary servers. When a connection is re-established (with eitherserver), the HSG sends the cached information to the server. Customers can beconfident that their billing information is secure and that no transaction records arelost.This document describes the process used by the HSG for mirroring billing records,and is organized into the following sections:z Sending Billing Recordsz XML Interfacez Establishing Billing Records “Mirroring” {Bill Record Mirroring}Sending Billing RecordsWhen there is a message (billing record) in the message queue, the system “wakes up”and performs 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 specifiedretransmission method (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 (forexample, if the HSG is powered down during transmission attempts.Billing records are sent to the carbon copy server(s) only after therecords are placed in the message queue. Carbon copy servers will notreceive the records again if a task for retransmitting to the primary orsecondary server needs to be performed.
