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Ordering maintenance for the IBM CICS Explorer and tools plug-ins
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| | | Question | | How do you get maintenance for the IBM CICS Explorer that comes with CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS) V4.1 and for the Explorer plug-ins that come with CICS Performance Analyzer for z/OS (CICS PA) V3.1, CICS Configuraton Manager for z/OS (CICS CM) V2.1, and CICS Interdependency Analyzer for z/OS (CICS IA) V3.1? | | | | | | Answer | Similar to other IBM products running on a personal computer (PC), maintenance will be delivered on the PC directly rather than through SMP/E on z/OS.
This allows you to apply maintenance to the CICS Explorer from the machine that it is running on without having to apply SMP/E PTFs and then having to copy fixes across to the PC.
IBM provides two methods for you to obtain maintenance for the CICS Explorer:
 Apply maintenance from an IBM-hosted Eclipse Update-Site
Download maintenance from IBM Fix Central
Since the CICS Explorer is written on top of the Eclipse framework, you can use the Eclipse Update framework to update the CICS Explorer with any available maintenance. This is provided by the built-in Eclipse Update Manager.
The Eclipse Update Manager is a robust Update Manager that manages updates to an Eclipse application to ensure applications are updated consistently and in a fail-safe manner.
In particular, the Eclipse Update Manager provides dependency management so that Eclipse applications that have dependencies on other Eclipse plug-ins can explicitly state which prerequisites and co-requisites are necessary to install the fix. This allows, for example, a CICS Performance Analyzer fix to enforce a dependency on a particular level of the CICS Explorer so that the CICS Performance Analyzer fix would only install into the CICS Explorer if the dependency was satisfied. This ensures that maintenance is always applied correctly and leaves the CICS Explorer in a consistent state.
The Eclipse Update Manager also provides roll-back capability so that any maintenance applied can always be rolled-back after application. It also allows cumulative maintenance to be rolled back so that no matter how much maintenance is applied, the application can always be rolled back to the original configuration if necessary. This is a useful fail-safe method to ensure that applying maintenance is not a one-way activity.
The Eclipse Update-Site URL will be included in the CICS Explorer. The Eclipse Update-Site allows updates to be both searched for, and installed from, the CICS Explorer itself.
For reference the Eclipse Update-Site URL is: http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/htp/cics/updates/explorer/
To update the CICS Explorer: - Run the CICS Explorer as usual, and select Help > Software Updates... from the top menu.
- Click the Available Software tab. The Update-Site listed above should already be present in tree of available Update-Sites, and you should select it using the checkbox next to it. If for some reason it is not there, you can add it:
- Select the Add Site... button.
- Type in the URL listed above into the location text box.
- Click ok.
- Select the checkbox when it is added to the tree.
- Click the Install... button.
- If there is an update available, an "Install" window will be displayed.
- Click the Finish button to update the CICS Explorer. The CICS Explorer will then download the updates and once finished it will ask whether you want to restart.
- Click Yes. The CICS Explorer will then restart and once it reopens it will be up-to-date.
- If, however, the CICS Explorer was already up-to-date when clicking on the "Install..." button, instead of the "Install" window appearing straight away, a dialog box will appear asking "The software items you selected may not be valid with your current installation. Do you want to open the wizard to review the selections?".
- Click the Yes button. A window will be displayed stating "Cannot complete the request. See the details. IBM CICS Explorer will be ignored because it is already installed.".
This is to be expected when there are no updates available for the CICS Explorer and your version is up-to-date.
Fix Central allows you to search, select, order, and download fixes to your system with a choice of delivery options. Fixes provide changes to your software, Licensed Internal Code, or machine code that fix known problems, add new function, and keep your system, software, or Hardware Management Console operating efficiently.
Fix Central has been designed to make it easy to find and obtain fixes by providing multiple search and ordering options.
These include the following:
- Search by APAR or SPR identifier
- Search by Fix ID
- Search by arbitrary text
- Search for recommended groups
- Limit search results by category, product, release, and platform
- Include prerequisite and corequisite fixes
- Download using Download Director, HTTP, or FTP
IBM Fix Central is located at: http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/
In order to find available updates for the CICS Explorer, select the following options:
Product Group: WebSphere
Product: CICS Explorer
Version: <the version of the CICS Explorer you are updating>
Operating System: <the operating system the CICS Explorer is installed on>
The version of the CICS Explorer you are updating can be found by running the CICS Explorer and selecting Help > About IBM CICS Explorer from the top menu and viewing the version in the about text. Note version 1.0.0.0 should be selected if the version is listed as 1.0.0 in the about text.
You will then be able to view the available fixes, and download the appropriate one.
| | | | | | | | | Cross Reference information | | Segment | Product | Component | Platform | Version | Edition | | Host Transaction Processing | CICS Performance Analyzer | Maintenance | z/OS | 3.1 | | | Host Transaction Processing | CICS Configuration Manager | Maintenance | z/OS | 2.1 | | | Host Transaction Processing | CICS Interdependency Analyzer | Maintenance | z/OS | 3.1 | |
| Product Alias/Synonym | | CICS/TS CICS TS CICS Transaction Server | | |
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| Product categories: |
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| | Software | |
| | Host Transaction Processing | |
| | Transaction Servers | |
| | CICS Transaction Server | |
| | Explorer | |
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| Operating system(s): |
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z/OS
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| Software version: |
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4.1
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| Reference #: |
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1380083
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| IBM Group: |
| | Software Group |
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| Modified date: |
| | 2009-07-15 |
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