CICS TS 4.2
It has been a bit quiet here on the posting front lately…. No excuses really, but I’ll make one anyway…. We have all been working hard on CICS TS 4.2 which was announced yesterday. You can read the announcement letter here.
If you want to have a play with CICS TS 4.2, an Open Beta program is running, for details and to sign up go here.
Any questions on CICS TS 4.2, feel free to post them as comments to this append, and we can try our best to answer them for you.
Oh, and if you want to check out the Beta CICS TS 4.2 Information Center, check it out here.
Calling all CICS customers – a request from Andrew and Ian
Historically, we here in Hursley have delivered new releases of CICS TS to the marketplace approximately every two years or so. Given that our last major release – CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V4.1 – was made generally available in 2Q 2009, it might be safe to assume that based on historical delivery cycles, 2011 could be exciting year for CICS TS announcements…
So as a CICS TS customer, what does this mean for you? Well, in addition to potentially getting your hand on some new capability in 2011, another thing it could mean for you is that now might be a really good time to start talking to us (and perhaps reminding us) about all those features, functions and enhancements that you want us to put in a future version of CICS TS!
We do of course already have a well defined requirements management process, alongside many other methods of gathering and analysing customer requirements. However, this time round we wanted to do something more – and that is what this post is all about.
We have built a survey containing six questions that we hope will uncover some requirements that we in the lab might not have come across before. The overall theme of the survey is about how CICS TS can do more to make our customers lives easier – something that hopefully we all want – and so the requirements can be big or small, so long as they are something you or your colleagues would benefit from.
These are the three main questions we would like you to think about:
- If IBM were designing the next CICS TS specifically for your organisation, what content (features and functions) would you like it to contain?
- Are there any custom written CICS capabilities/utilities (Exits, URM’s, Scripts, etc.) that you would rather IBM implemented natively in CICS TS?
- Are there any other no-charge custom CICS capabilities/utilities (IBM SupportPacs, etc.) that augment your CICS TS environment with?
Here is a link to the full on-line survey: www.surveymonkey.com/s/CICSReqs2011
The survey also contains three additional open questions: what do you like about CICS TS; what do you dislike about CICS TS; and space for you to tell us anything else you would like us to know. All responses will be included in our planning process and each and every one of them will be looked at and considered.
Ian and I are appealing to all of our CICS TS customers to spend a little bit of time considering and submitting their responses. Perhaps you could even involving other departments with an interest in CICS TS (those AD guys that you SP folks do not always talk to perhaps?).
You never know, in the not too distant future, you might be very glad you did!
Cheers,
Andrew Bates, Product Manager, CICS Transaction Server for z/OS
Ian Mitchell, Chief Architect, CICS Transaction Server for z/OS
Some light reading: CICS DA, SIT parameters, blogging and z/Journal links
A very random collection of CICS links today.
A new tool has just been added to the CICS portfolio. The all shiny and new CICS Deployment Assistant. Congratulations to Grant and everyone else involved on releasing a great new tool!
CICS Deployment Assistant can discover, model, visualize, and deploy new and existing CICS regions, using automation and policy-driven advice built on your own and IBM’s knowledge and experience, giving you access to the latest IBM CICS technology faster and easier than ever before.
Two interesting new APAR (CICS APAR PM15583 and CICSPlex SM APAR PM15214) have also been released for CICS TS V4.1. When applied together, they provide access to the cold-start CICS SIT parameters via the CICSPlex SM API and the CICS Management Client Interface (CMCI). They will allow you to find out not only what value each regions SIT parameters were set to but also where they were set. Very handy for problem determination or just keeping track of your environment.
If you read z/Journal you may have spotted CICSPlex SM developer Dave Williams 3 excellent articles:
- An Implementation Fast Path for CICSPlex SM
- CICS Task History Recording
- CICS Sysplex Optimized Workload Routing
You might notice there are some new sharing options on the blog now as well. At the bottom of every post you should now be able to simply click a button to share the post to twitter or Facebook.
Finally, a new blog focussing on WebSphere and CICS support has also just been created over on developerWorks. I’ve also added the blog to our bookmarks below.
New SupportPacs for CICS Explorer
If you have been keeping an eye out on IBM_CICS you may have spotted a number of new SupportPacs that allow you to use various IBM PD Tools with CICS Explorer:
You will need the corresponding versions of the z/OS component to use the plugins, but if you have them and CICS Explorer, you are good to go.
Note: these plugins currently require the Windows version of CICS Explorer.
Any questions, or comments on these SupportPacs ask here, or over on Developerworks.
Impact socks on day 4 – AKA The Day the CICS Explorers found a CICS Explorer
Posted on behalf of Nick.
The Tom Rosamilia and Phil Weintraub ‘Ask z Experts’ session was very well attended – below you can see Mr Zemblowski and Catherine Moxey center back row, Steve next to the linen-suited dapper Mr O’Dowd.
Phil W appears to be taking council from Anthony O’Dowd – no doubt asking why, if the Message Broker can handle scoring at events like Wimbledon and the Ryder Cup why can’t we use it to resolve the integration of a hung Parliament in the UK.
Meanwhile is looks like Tom R is praying that our very own Em James knows the answer.
Looks like Sue has found her badge at last – hope she kept hold of her passport! You don’t want to lose your passport while on a business trip…..
Now look who our intrepid explorers have run in to – our real live genuine CICS Explorer Joe Winchester!
That’s just about it now, flights home on Saturday and back to Hursley next week – must start work on that hit single now we’ve absorbed some American culture.
Impact socks on day 3
Posted on behalf of Nick.
Our intrepid CICS Explorers have been checking out the Super Woman’s Reception – I think Tom was expecting lycra and super powers.
While they were there they bumped in to Yvonne Perkins, VP for Enterprise Platform Systems (EPS) who wished to pass their Best of British wishes to her.
After all the socialising it was time to hit the bar and a glass of red, room temperature of course.
Many people you see here are walking around with colourful buttons adorning them (click the image for a close-up).
I must say I liked the Connectivity Cowboy one, although cannot claim any input to that particular badge, but here are the ‘sacks’ of badges waiting to be taken up.
Now it was time to scope out the food – so we went for a closer look.
Then it was off to play the machines.
Some people lose their shirt gambling, this chap lost his head by the look of it!
But Tom and Sue decided to see what they could get with their winnings- is Ford country some kind of music?
Obviously someone got upset because the next thing we know is Security arrived….
We just hope they let us out in time for tomorrows sessions, particularly Phil Wakelins security talk which will include the new feature recently made available for CICS TS V4.1, ID Propagation. Also, what should be an entertaining session from Will Yates – Old stager Vs Greenhorn and a look at how the CICS Explorer can help and for those of you who missed Fraser’s Dynamic Scripting session there’s a repeat!
Impact socks on day 2
Posted on behalf of Nick.
So after the excitement of day one and the 200+ attendees to Dave Andrews opening, our intrepid CICS Explorers get down in to the more detailed technical sessions. To back up the technical sessions, as well as the Ask z Expert sessions, there are demo’s being provided in the IBM System z Software Solutions Suite.
After a quick chat with the CICS Business Partner Supremo, Diane Johnson (@dianegjohnson), it was off to the solution center to see what freebies there were check out all the rich complementary products to the CICS family.
First stop was the Hostbridge stand (doing more with CICS) – nice comfy chair and check out that guitar behind us – looks like a ’57 Les Paul to me
Next we visited those fine people who used to be called Fair Isaac, now known as FICO.
Now with all the new stuff CICS keeps putting in to it’s products it gets increasingly hard to stay up to date with it all, so it’s important that we have companies offering education and instruction of how to take advantage.
So after a hard day around the event it was time for our Explorers to put their feet? up. The ideal solution to this was to relax in one of the bars.
We spent some time analysing what was on offer for Day 3 and saw Catherine Moxey was giving her CICS Events pitch, Fraser had a couple of sessions on CICS Web Services and Service Component Architecture as well as the exciting new announcement from CICS, a session on Dynamic Scripting, there’s an ILOG session from Matt Whitbourne (@mattwhitbourne) and Dan Donnelly as well as further education on CICS Events and implementation.However, in addition to this there is the Tom Rosamilia session at 16:30 Creating an Agile, Dynamic and Cost-Effective Business With System z. and the ‘Ask z Experts 18:00 session with Tom and Phil Weintraub. Another full day ahead – in the words of that classic Greek philosopher, or was he Roman? Actually I think it the Magic Roundabout…. Zebedee “time for bed….”
Impact socks
I’ve been asked to publish this by Nick, who is just too nice to say no to. No socks were harmed (so far) during the creation of this content but I can assure you they will be given a good talking to when they return from their err.. adventures.
So having shamelessly plugged Impact 2010 on YouTube promo video here we are at Impact 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Venetian Hotel is the setting for most of the sessions and two stars of the Impact promotional videos have taken some time out to give a narrative of the first days proceedings. Sue and Tom have flown over from the Hursley Lab in the UK to be present at this years event along with several others speakers and attendees from the SW Lab in England. Dave Andrews, the CICS Development Director kicked off the CICS Track with a family update, featuring two key announcements made last week. The CICS Transaction Gateway V8 and CICS Dynamic Scripting no-charge feature pack.
Sue and Tom also heard about the exciting new Redbook that is available ‘Smarter Banking with CICS Transaction Server and were seen ‘mugging’ up on the book.
Next up it was time for food.
After lunch it was time to take the Solution tour.
Where upon we came across a nice bright shiny z10 – it’s big it’s black, the mainframes back!!
After that they decided to venture off and investigate the experts.
Here we found the resident CICS Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM), Catherine Moxey.
There’s plenty going on here and for Tuesday we have Joe Winchester talking about the CICS Explorer and how it can be extended using the software development kit, Steve Zemblowski talking about upgrading your CICS TS, Catherine (when she’s not in the experts zone) talking about CICS Events, Dan Donnelly talking about ILOG Business Rules solutions and a couple of CICS Tools sessions, one featuring Jim White from Southern California Edison. So before the jet lag kicks in any further it’s off for some rest.
Smarter banking with CICS TS V4.1
IBM System z Software Webcast
Webcast April 21, 2010, 11:00 EDT*** Please note EDT Timing ***
Smarter banking with CICS TS V4.1
The industry and analyst studies are piling up and they all arrive at the same conclusion:
Aligning business and IT efforts can double the productivity gains of those efforts done individually. This alignment also enables businesses to deliver the right information in the right context, tailored to individual needs. But redesigning decades of existing code and solutions is not a viable approach to process improvement. How do you approach building a successful and scalable smarter banking initiative non-invasively?
From an organizational perspective, the enterprise needs horizontal visibility as well as appropriate skills to manage the business and IT operational environments. From a technological perspective, the enterprise needs a platform that will scale with the success of the bank, as well as continuously ensure the integrity and reliability of business processes and services. Providing end-to-end process visibility on a high-performance horizontal transaction processing platform will be a key differentiator for successful enterprises in their drive toward smarter banking.
Join us for this complimentary webcast to learn how IBM CICS® Transaction Server V4.1 can deliver the highly scalable agile infrastructure transaction processing fundamentals needed, along with advanced capabilities like business event emission, and ATOM feeds as a great starting point toward providing a solid foundation for the future.
In this session, we will discuss how CICS TS V4.1 and complementary WebSphere® solutions support smarter banking by helping you:
- Gain insight into business processes and respond by modifying key business applications quickly and with confidence
- Comply with corporate, industry and government policies to manage business risk of critical business applications
- Control costs by simplifying IT infrastructure and improving development and operational productivity through easier-to-use interfaces and functions
Register now for this webcast here.
Speakers:
- Claus T. Jensen, Senior Technical Staff Member and Chief Architect, Architectural Synergies and Lifecycles, IBM Software Group
- Alison Lucas, CICS TS Communications Software Developer, IBM Software Group
Broadcast date: April 21, 2010, 11 a.m., EDT
Developed for: IT and enterprise architects, IT managers, and industry solutions analysts and managers
Technical level: Intermediate
Join us after the webcast for a live question-and-answer session. This webcast will also be available for replay after the event.
Quick how to – CICS applid not (yet) active to VTAM and running CICS transactions from SDSF
Everyone has things in their lives that annoy them but instead of working on a solution, they just live with it because they either haven’t thought about it or the workaround is quick enough that it doesn’t really matter that much.
Since I started in CICS almost 5 years ago (has it been that long already!) I’ve always just accepted that if I’d forgotten to activate my VTAM applids before I brought a CICS region up, the quickest course of action was just to activate my applids and restart CICS. Now, I had always just assumed that there was a better way of doing that but there was always something else more important to worry about. So, no idea what we were discussing at the time, but somehow Grant managed to slip the solution to this one into our conversation. Now I am sure this is just the most obvious thing in the world to most of our readers but I thought I’d share the solution anyway.
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