Preview: IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V4.1 will support Event Processing,
Web 2.0, and the CICS Explorer
IBM United States
Software Announcement 209-035
February 24, 2009
 ENUS209-035.PDF (34KB)
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CICS® Transaction
Server (CICS TS)
V4.1 will deliver important new function to help businesses meet the demands
of increased regulatory scrutiny, address changing demographics, and position
themselves to take advantage of new growth opportunities. New function includes:
- Non-invasive detection and emission of business events from within CICS applications
will provide insight into business behavior.
- Atom feeds and RESTful APIs will enable existing CICS applications to participate in mashups
and similar Web 2.0 development styles.
- The CICS Explorer
will simplify the development and management of traditional and modern applications
and provide an integration point for IBM® and third-party tools.
CICS TS
V4.1 will also introduce a wide range of other technical and operational capabilities,
including many requirements raised by individual customers and user communities.
An open beta version of CICS TS V4.1 will be made available free of charge.
To register your interest, visit
- http://www.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/tserver/v41/openbeta
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CICS Transaction
Server for z/OS® (CICS TS)
is a modern, dependable, and cost-effective application platform. In second
or third quarter 2009, CICS TS V4.1 will deliver new business event capabilities,
Web 2.0 programming support, and new operational tooling that will enable
enterprise agility when responding to business opportunity and risk in rapidly
changing markets. Its traditional qualities of security, reliability, availability,
scalability, data-integrity, and application responsiveness make CICS TS the perfect
transaction-server partner for Web application servers.
CICS TS
V4.1 will build on the solid foundations, mature service oriented architecture
(SOA) support, and open connectivity of previous CICS versions, bringing new levels of ease-of-use
and flexibility to meet the needs of the next generation of business users.
It will assist its users in their activities directed at:
- Competing for new opportunities by gaining insight into business processes
and responding by modifying key business applications quickly and with confidence
- Complying with corporate, industry and government policies to manage business
risk of critical business applications
- Controlling costs by simplifying IT infrastructure and improving development
and operations productivity through easier-to-use interfaces and functions
An agile organization with the ability to innovate can position itself
for growth even in difficult circumstances, such as a challenging world economy.
New technologies, like event-driven processes, business dashboards, and Web
2.0 applications can enable businesses to respond quickly and effectively,
allowing them to capture emerging opportunities as markets recover. CICS TS V4.1
will support these initiatives by delivering new application capabilities
to:
- Support business event detection and emission within CICS without
the need to change existing applications, enabling the creation of production
business views using dashboards in a matter of hours
- Create new business insight by publishing key application data, enabling
rich client developers to use Web 2.0 technologies, such as Atom feeds and
RESTful APIs, to create mashups and other modern applications
- Modify processes rapidly and with confidence by assembling and deploying
new business applications quickly using service components
Sound governance and measured compliance are key to managing business risk
- an increasing requirement for enterprise lines-of-business and for IT departments.
Line-of-business managers need to know the status of critical business application
processing and to identify exceptions. They must react swiftly to address
such exceptions, while ensuring that compliance with corporate, industry and
government standards can be accurately reported at all times.
The new CICS event
technology will enable CICS to be configured to feed business event processing
engines and business dashboards, without the need for application change.
This will better allow the line-of-business to ensure that business processes
are under control and to monitor and react to compliance requirements, security
breaches, and incidents of fraud.
To support the needs of the lines-of-business, IT departments are required
to manage application, resource and configuration change in a controlled manner. CICS TS
V4.1 will help by logging new resource signature information to record who
last made changes to the resource and when they were made. New support for
identity propagation will help to improve cross-platform accountability and
the auditing of access to sensitive business information and applications.
CICS TS
V4.1 will also continue the process of simplifying complex infrastructure
by extending its use of TCP/IP to CICS Transaction Routing. Also, responding
to the need to improve operations productivity, adapt to a changing skill-base,
and avoid unexpected errors, the CICS Explorer will deliver a powerful tooling
environment to help highly-skilled IT staff to be more productive, while providing
a more intuitive experience for less experienced personnel. Coupled with many
other new capabilities, CICS TS V4.1 will enable IT departments to "do more
with less".
Preview announcements provide insight into IBM plans and directions. General availability,
prices, ordering information, and terms and conditions will be provided when
the product is announced.
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The minimum required level of operating system for CICS TS V4.1 is z/OS V1.9 (5694-A01).
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CICS TS
V4.1 will help businesses to meet the challenges of the current economic circumstances,
increased regulation, and changing skill levels. At the same time it positions
the customer to take advantage of opportunities for growth in challenging
economic times. The new version will provide support for three distinct themes
that relate directly to many customers' business priorities and initiatives.
- Business flexibility: Making it easier to create, extend, and reuse
applications quickly, to meet changing business needs
- Governance and compliance: Ensuring and demonstrating, effective
management control over business applications and IT facilities
- IT simplification: Helping IT staff to perform their tasks more
effectively, while assuming a mix of skill levels
Key enhancements
CICS TS
V4.1 will support two or more of these themes, simultaneously. For example,
the ability to generate business events without changing application programs
reduces the cost and complexity of delivering compliant and flexible business
solutions.
Support for event processing
Users will be able to specify atomic business events and then capture and
emit them from a CICS application, without the need to change the application.
These business events can be used in many ways, such as providing insight
into business activity and processing, or driving new processing to respond
to business opportunities or threats. For example, they could be consumed
by another CICS application
or placed on a WebSphere® MQ
queue. Once on the queue, they could be consumed in a variety of ways, including:
- By a business event processing engine, such as WebSphere Business Events. Customers
with CICS TS
V3 can generate events today using SupportPac™ CB11 -- CICS Events for WebSphere Business
Events.
- By a dashboard, such as WebSphere Business Monitor
- Other methods, such as reading the event in another program
Atom feeds from CICS
CICS will
be able to provide access to CICS resources and application programs in a RESTful
style by exposing them as Atom feeds or collections, structured according
to the Atom Syndication Format and the Atom Publishing Protocol. This implementation
of REST (Representation State Transfer) permits the HTTP methods GET, PUT,
POST, and DELETE to be used to read and update the contents of CICS resources
from an external HTTP client application. This will allow the business content
currently locked within CICS to be viewed and manipulated using modern Web2.0
applications, such as feed readers and mashups.
CICS TS
V3 customers can continue to use the currently available SupportPac CA8K
-- Delivering Atom feeds from CICS, which provides sample code to demonstrate
how to generate Atom feeds to publish data contained within CICS resources
or obtained by running a CICS application. SupportPac CA1S -- REST support in CICS using
PHP enables programmers without traditional CICS skills to access CICS resources
using the modern PHP scripting language. Additionally, the EGL Rich User Interface,
available in Rational® Developer
for System
z® with EGL, simplifies the construction of powerful Web 2.0 applications
that can interact with CICS using Web services and Restful interfaces. CICS customers
can use EGL RUI to modernize existing CICS applications or create complete new
applications by increasing the amount of information and flexibility for end
users through the delivery of powerful graphical interfaces and their ability
to interact with CICS-based COBOL, PL/I, C, C++, Java™, PHP as well as EGL "back-end" business
processes.
The CICS Explorer
The CICS Explorer
- the new face of CICS - is the new systems management tool framework
for CICS.
It will provide an intuitive, easy-to-use way of managing one or more CICS regions.
The CICS Explorer
provided with CICS TS
V4.1 will support all of the new function in the release - for example, resources
associated with event processing and resource bundles. It allows both viewing
and updating operations for resource definition and system management operations
for both single and multiple CICS regions. The CICS Explorer also acts as a point of Integration
for other CICS tools.
Developers of complementary tools, whether from IBM teams, business partners, or customers,
can use a supplied software development kit to extend and integrate their
software tools as plug-ins to the Explorer framework.
Other important enhancements
The other important enhancements in CICS TS V4.1 are grouped by the theme that
they primarily support.
Business flexibility
Support for application components
CICS will
provide the infrastructure and runtime support for the deployment and management
of application components. These application components will provide a common
programming interface for service invocation, and a service description that
is compliant with the Service Component Architecture (SCA). This further improves
the ability to publish and use CICS applications in an SOA.
Support for application bundles
Users will be able to deploy a set of resources that are supported by the
new CICS bundle
resource type. By enabling and disabling a bundle, users will be able to manage
the availability of an application and the life-cycle of its associated resources. CICS will
dynamically create, enable, or disable the set of resources and maintain the
relationship between them.
Improvements to data mappings
CICS will
provide faster and enhanced conversion between XML and language structures
for all Web services, and new APIs to use these services independent of Web
services.
Support for Web services addressing
CICS TS
V4.1 will support services that use the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) Web
Services Addressing (WS-Addressing) specifications. WS-Addressing is a transport-neutral
mechanism for passing messaging information between Web services. WS-Addressing
combines an Endpoint Reference (EPR) with Message Addressing Properties (MAPs).
Support for Java 6
CICS TS
V4.1 will support the latest Java language features, environment and
unique System
z extensions provided by IBM 31-bit SDK for z/OS Java Technology Edition, V6. The IBM 31-bit SDK
for z/OS Java Technology
Edition, V6 is designed to be compliant with the Java SDK 6 compatibility test and provides
the stability, service, and scalability and exploitation of System z Application
Assist Processors (zAAPs) you expect from System z. CICS continues to manage effectively and
scale large workloads comprised of Java applications or a mixture of Java, COBOL,
and other compiled languages.
Governance and compliance
Improvements in management of resource definitions
A new resource signature will provide change management information for
resources that are installed or changed under CICS TS 4.1. Users will be able to take
advantage of these improved details to detect resource modifications to support
audit tracking and problem resolution.
Exploitation of identity propagation
CICS TS
V4.1 will be able to use the z/OS Identify Propagation capabilities that allow distributed
end-user identities to be associated with z/OS user IDs, enabling CICS applications
to participate in end-to-end security solutions and support accountability
auditing. For more information, refer to Software Announcement 209-029, dated February 24, 2009.
Security improvement for DB2 users
The CICS interface
with DB2® will
provide additional function when using DB2 and RACF®. CICS can be configured to pass the address
of its region user ID Access Control Environment Element (ACEE) to simplify
the recommended migration from DB2 internal security to using RACF.
Support for WebSphere Service Registry and Repository
to publish and read Web service descriptions
The CICS Web
services assistants will include support for directly publishing and reading
Web service description language (WSDL) information from WebSphere Service
Registry and Repository. WebSphere Service Registry and Repository provides
features to store, find, enrich, manage, and govern Web services.
IT simplification
Extensions to CICS-to-CICS intercommunications over
TCP/IP
As part of the multi-release IP interconnectivity (IPIC) initiative, CICS will
provide the facility to use TCP/IP instead of SNA for key base intercommunications
functions, including 3270 based transaction routing, and START and CANCEL
commands. This is in addition to Distributed Program Link (DPL) introduced
in CICS TS
V3.2. Support is also provided for the definition and installation of IPIC
connections between CICS regions using SYSLINK resources.
Support for Internet Protocol version 6
CICS will
operate natively in an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) network without
the need for address translation. IPv6 provides for a greater number of addresses
and provides improvements in areas such as routing and network auto-configuration. CICS will
also continue to operate in an IPv4 network as before.
Support for WebSphere MQ queue-sharing groups
The CICS-WMQ connection will be easier to configure, manage and is more
robust. New resource definitions configure the CICS-WMQ connection and can
specify a WebSphere MQ
queue-sharing group. CICS will connect to any eligible queue manager in the
group, and in failure scenarios will automatically reconnect to another member.
The new resource definitions enable the configuration to be standardized across CICS regions
and z/OS images,
and managed easily together with other CICS application resources.
Improvements to workload management support
CICS is
now able to use the coupling facility to store more detailed, accurate workload
management data. This enhancement supports dynamic workload management capabilities
when running in a z/OS Parallel Sysplex® environment and enables
improved performance and overall transaction throughput.
The CICS systems management client API
CICS will
provide a powerful new CICS systems management client API using Representational
State Transfer (RESTful) principles, for use by HTTP client applications including
the CICS Explorer.
This new API can be used to develop RESTful client applications that manage CICS resources.
New system programming commands for managing the CSD
A new set of CICS System
Programming Interface (SPI) commands will enable automation programs to inquire
and change resource definitions in the CICS System Definition (CSD) file as an
alternative to the 3270 user transaction CEDA and the DFHCSDUP batch utility.
The Discovery Library Adapter for CICS
The Discovery Library Adapter (DLA) for CICS will provide a utility that will collect
runtime configuration and relationship information about CICS and CICSPlex® SM
resources, and then generate XML files that can be used by a discovery library
reader, such as Tivoli® Business
Service Manager, for the purpose of generating Business Service Views and
dashboards. This will allow an enterprise to track their resources and interdependencies.
Improvements in CICS monitoring
New performance data metrics will be provided for Web and Web service applications,
enabling improved performance reporting and analysis of these applications
to be performed. New transaction resource class monitoring data will be provided
for distributed program link (DPL) requests, enabling users to better understand
the work load management of their DPL applications. Users will be able to
dynamically set the monitoring options that limit the number of distributed
program links, files, and temporary storage queues for which CICS is to perform
transaction resource monitoring. The default will be to perform monitoring
record compression, which will help reduce the volume of monitoring output
produced.
The CICS Explorer
- the new face of CICS
A statement of direction (SoD), announced on August 5, 2008, (Software
Announcement 208-248, dated August 5, 2008) stated
the IBM intention
to introduce a new Eclipse-based GUI, the CICS Explorer, to increase the productivity
of highly skilled CICS development and administration personnel, and to
enable broadly skilled technical staff to develop and manage CICS system configurations
effectively.
The SoD also stated that selected CICS tools would complement and enrich
the base data and tasks provided by the CICS Explorer with their own views, tasks
and data to support disciplines. The SoD additionally stated that IBM also intended
to release a Software Development Kit (SDK) that would enable vendors and
customers to develop and integrate their own solutions with the CICS Explorer.
On November 5, 2008, IBM made available the first version of the CICS Explorer
SupportPacs CS1J and CS1O, for Microsoft® Windows® and Linux®, respectively. These SupportPacs
provided the CICS Explorer
framework with connectivity to CICS TS V3 systems, while plug-ins for CICS Interdependency
Analyzer (CICS IA), CICS Performance
Analyzer (CICS PA),
and CICS Configuration
Manager (CICS CM),
in SupportPac CS1N,
provided CICS tools
support. At the same time, SupportPac CA1R provided an SDK to allow vendors
and customers to integrate existing and new solutions with the CICS Explorer.
SupportPacs for both the CICS Explorer and CICS tools plug-ins have been updated since
their initial release, adding new capabilities to their existing functionality.
CICS TS
V3 customers can use the CICS Explorer currently to view the status of all resources
deployed in a CICSPlex or
configured in the CICSPlex repository. CICS TS V4.1 customers will additionally
be able to create, update, and delete resources as well as perform other control
actions such as Open, Close, Purge, Install, and Newcopy.
Integrated tools for CICS products
CICS IA
CICS IA
customers, using the CICS Explorer with CICS IA plug-in, are now able to use an
intuitive way to query CICS relationship data, manage queries and navigate
through complex application relationships from a standard interface. The CICS IA
plug-in integrates with other CICS Explorer perspectives, for example,
to click on a transaction in a CICS PA bar chart and drill down to see
its dependencies, relationships, and affinities.
CICS PA
CICS PA
customers can now analyze the performance of their CICS applications within the CICS Explorer,
by importing performance extract files that are created using standard CICS PA
TSO jobs. These extract files can be visualized within the CICS Explorer
in a number of ways, including spreadsheet views, with sortable, reorderable
columns, bar chart views, and pie chart views. A number of performance task
scenarios are provided, including threadsafe, response time, storage, and
file analysis. Customers who also have CICS IA, can link in context, for example
from a CICS PA
view showing transactions with large numbers of Task Control Block (TCB) switches,
to a CICS IA
view showing the programs that comprise the transaction.
CICS CM
CICS CM
customers can now access many product capabilities using the CICS Explorer,
including the ability to search and query all CICS resource definitions whether stored
in CSDs or the CICSPlex repository.
Rich editors are provided allowing new definitions to be created or existing
ones updated, while hiding much of the complexity previously experienced by
users. The CICS CM
capabilities are seamlessly integrated with the base views to provide powerful
editing and auditing capabilities transparent to the user.
CICS Transaction Gateway
With the delivery of CICS Transaction Gateway (CICS TG) for z/OS V7.2 and CICS TG for Multiplatforms V7.2, in December
2008, CICS TG
customers can now use a new Java API for systems monitoring, giving
access to CICS TG
runtime statistics from remote Java clients. This new API provides integration
with the CICS Explorer,
making available the rich set of CICS views, data and methods that the CICS Explorer
provides.
IBM Rational Developer for System z
IBM Rational Developer
for System
z enables business flexibility to design and construct traditional CICS applications
while extending and integrating those applications to SOA-based composites
quickly and efficiently. IBM Rational Developer for System z is provided with an embedded
version of the CICS Explorer
and adds support for CICS TS V4.1, including the ability to create application
components, work with events, deploy bundles, and create new Web 2.0 style
RESTful services.
When IBM Rational Developer
for System
z is used with the IBM Software Development Platform, developers can extend
processing to meet a broad range of requirements, including change management
with such tools as IBM ClearCase® or IBM Rational Team Concert for System z,
and testing tools such as IBM Debug Tools UAF, IBM Fault Analyzer, and IBM File Manager.
All of these products can be integrated into a single development environment
usable directly from the IBM Rational Developer for System z desktop.
IBM Rational Developer
for System
z offers two product choices providing additional flexibility:
- IBM Rational Developer
for System
z with Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) for an end-to-end development
environment able to create next-generation EGL Rich UI Web 2.0 style interfaces
connecting to CICS TS
V4.1.
- IBM Rational Developer
for System
z with Java for a complete development workbench for both Java Enterprise
Edition and CICS TS
V4.1 applications.
Open beta program
An open beta version of CICS TS V4.1 will be made available free of charge.
To register your interest, visit
- http://www.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/tserver/v41/openbeta
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For information on the CICS Explorer, refer to Software Announcement 208-248, dated August 5, 2008.
For information on CICS TS V3.2, refer to Software Announcement 207-051, dated March 27, 2007.
Business Partner information
If you are a Direct Reseller - System Reseller acquiring products from
IBM, you may link directly to Business Partner information for this announcement.
A PartnerWorld ID and password are required (use IBM ID).
- https://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/mem/sla.jsp?num=209-035
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Product deliverables are shipped only via Customized Offerings (for example,
CBPDO, ServerPac, SystemPac®).
CBPDO and ServerPac are offered for Internet delivery, where ShopzSeries
product ordering is available. Internet delivery of ServerPac may help improve
automation and software delivery time. For more details on Internet delivery,
refer to the ShopzSeries help information at
- http://www.software.ibm.com/ShopzSeries
Media type for this software product is chosen during the customized offerings
ordering process. Based on your customer environment, it is recommended that
the highest possible density tape media is selected. Currently offered media
types are:
- CBPDOs - 3480, 3480 Compressed, 3490E, 3590, and 3592*
- ServerPacs - 3480, 3480 Compressed, 3490E, 3590, and 3592*
- SystemPacs - 3480, 3480 Compressed, 3490E, 3590, and 3592*
*3592 is highest density media. Selecting 3592 will ship the fewest number
of media.
Once a product becomes generally available, it will be included in the
next ServerPac and SystemPac monthly update.
Production of software product orders will begin on the planned general
availability date.
- CBPDO shipments will begin one week after general availability.
- ServerPac shipments will begin two weeks
after inclusion in ServerPac.
- SystemPac shipments
will begin four weeks after inclusion in SystemPac due to additional customization,
and data input verification.
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IBM has
transformed its delivery of hardware and software support services to help
you achieve higher system availability. Electronic Services is a Web-enabled
solution that offers an exclusive, no-additional-charge enhancement to the
service and support available for IBM servers. These services are designed
to provide the opportunity for greater system availability with faster problem
resolution and preemptive monitoring. Electronic Services comprises two separate,
but complementary, elements: Electronic Services news page and Electronic
Services Agent.
The Electronic Services news page is a single Internet entry point that
replaces the multiple entry points traditionally used to access IBM Internet services
and support. The news page enables you to gain easier access to IBM resources
for assistance in resolving technical problems.
The Electronic
Service Agent™ is no-additional-charge software that resides on your server.
It monitors events and transmits system inventory information to IBM on a periodic,
client-defined timetable. The Electronic Service Agent automatically
reports hardware problems to IBM. Early knowledge about potential problems enables IBM to
deliver proactive service that may result in higher system availability and
performance. In addition, information collected through the Service Agent
is made available to IBM service support representatives when they help answer
your questions or diagnose problems. Installation and use of IBM Electronic
Service Agent for problem reporting enables IBM to provide better support and service
for your IBM server.
To learn how Electronic Services can work for you, visit
- http://www.ibm.com/support/electronic
Trademarks
SupportPac and Electronic Service Agent are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
CICS, IBM, z/OS, WebSphere, Rational, System z, DB2, RACF, Parallel Sysplex, CICSPlex, Tivoli, ClearCase and SystemPac are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
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Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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