CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V3.1

CICSPlex SM is a system management product for managing CICS® regions on z/OS™ and Windows® NT® from a z/OS system.

It provides a single point of control from which all CICS systems can be managed, in a single system image manner. Multiple single points of control can be established, thereby eliminating any single point of failure in the management network, and providing appropriate span of control via SAF compliant security products.

Management interfaces exhibiting single system image properties provide the ability to manage CICS regions and resources without regard to physical location, displaying data and enabling actions on multiple systems from single views. This greatly simplifies systems management activities in a highly dynamic configuration.

Sets of CICS regions can be manipulated as a whole through two constructs, namely Context and Scope. Context is a named group of CICS regions defined as a CICSPlex. CICSPlexes usually relate to the type of regions under control, e.g. test, QA and production. A CICS region can belong to one and only one CICSPlex. By contrast, a scope can be defined as a named grouping of any CICS regions within the CICSPlex. This scope can be defined in terms of base CICS regions, or via reference to other valid scope names. Typical uses of scopes correspond to groupings such as CICS regions on a given z/OS image, region type such as TORs or AORs etc, the set of systems associated with a (partitioned) workload, e.g. payroll. The same CICS region can exist in multiple scopes.

Functions supported include

• Creation of resouce definitions and install into the CICS runtime. A CICS resource can thus be defined once and installed into multiple geographically dispersed CICS regions with a single command.

• Definition of which resources constitute a business application. This can be used in a runtime context to view/manipulate a given applications resources.

• Operate the CICS systems and resources under control of CICSPlex SM, e.g. NEWCOPYing a program across multiple regions is a single command.

• Monitor CICS systems and resources under the control of CICSPlex SM.

• Define thresholds based on object instances at the attribute level for CICS resources. This provides a significantly more granular approach to alerting and automation than simple message based systems.

• Provide the ability to take automated actions within CICSPlex SM. e.g. maintaining the availability of key resources in the CICS regions.

• Provide the ability to integrate into independant automation tools such as Tivoli NetView, Tivoli Business System Manager and other Tivoli and 3rd party management products.

• Dynamically routing various types of CICS workload across multiple regions to achieve Service Level Agreements, bypass failing regions, and provide continuous availability of CICS applications to the end user.

• Management of the managing systems themselves.

All of the functions can be accessed via

• A modern, easy to use browser interface. This is essentially a zero install client for CICS systems management. Both http and https are supported, which along with CICS support for SSL provide a secure interface for CICS systems management. This interface is fully NLS enabled and meets accessibility standards.

• The associated browser server technology provides the ability to define fully customised views and menus. This includes the ability to integrate this technology into customer web based procedure manuals, and to create task based menus and views directly related to individual site needs. Customisation is secured via SAF compliant interfaces such as RACF, and a complete audit trail of changes is recorded.

• A fully functional system management API. The API is supported in several languages apropriate to the intended usage. C, Cobol, PL1, BASM languages are supported, along with REXX. Invocation can occur from CICS regions, z/OS batch address spaces, TSO and NetView. This allows customers to write automation scripts and various systems management scripts for invocation by an end user, or via scheduling packages such as OP/CA.

• Batch repository update mechanism for bulk manipulation of resources defined to CICSPlex SM.

A TSO end user interface is also provided with this release, however this interface is now stabilised and will be removed in a future release of CICS TS. Users should therefore utilise the browser interface as their primary end user interface into CICSPlex SM.