Ordering maintenance for the IBM CICS Explorer

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

Eclipse Update Site

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 URLs are:

Update Sites for CICS Explorer V1:
CICS Explorer 1.1.1
http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/updates/explorer/1.1/1.1.1/

CICS Explorer 1.1
http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/updates/explorer/1.1/1.1.0/

CICS Explorer 1.0.1
http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/updates/explorer/1.0/1.0.1/

CICS Explorer 1.0
http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/updates/explorer/1.0/1.0.0/

Composite update site - for use with CICS Explorer V5 only
This update site contains the CICS Explorer and all associated plugins
http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/updates/portfolio/5.1/5.1.0/

To update the CICS Explorer 5.1:

1. Run the CICS Explorer as usual. You may wish to confirm that the update site is available. If you know the update site is already available you can skip to the next step.
   1. To confirm that the update site is available, select Help > Install New Software... from the top menu.
   2. Click the Available Software Sites hyperlink. The composite update site for CICS Explorer and all CICS Tools plugins should already be present in the list 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:
      1. Select the Add... button.
      2. Type in a name for this update site.
      3. Enter the URL listed above into the Location text box.
      4. Click OK
      5. Ensure the checkbox is selected against it once added.
   3. Click OK in the Preferences Dialog to return
   4. Click Cancel button or exit dialog to return.
2. Select Help -> Check For Updates
3. If any are available please follow instructions in the dialogs to install.

To update the CICS Explorer 1.1:

1. Run the CICS Explorer as usual. You may wish to confirm that the update site is available. If you know the update site is already available you can skip to the next step.
   1. To confirm that the update site is available, select Help > Install New Software... from the top menu.
   2. Click the Available Software Sites hyperlink. The update site for the product you wish to update (see list above) should already be present in the list 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:
      1. Select the Add... button.
      2. Type in a name for this update site.
      3. Enter the URL listed above into the Location text box.
      4. Click OK
      5. Ensure the checkbox is selected against it once added.
   3. Click OK in the Preferences Dialog to return
   4. Click Cancel button or exit dialog to return.
2. Select Help -> Check For Updates
3. If any are available please follow instructions in the dialogs to install.

To update the CICS Explorer 1.0:

1. Run the CICS Explorer as usual, and select Help > Software Updates... from the top menu.
2. 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:
   1. Select the Add Site... button.
   2. Type in the URL listed above into the location text box.
   3. Click ok.
   4. Select the checkbox when it is added to the tree.
3. Click the Install... button.
4. If there is an update available, an "Install" window will be displayed.
5. 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.
6. Click Yes. The CICS Explorer will then restart and once it reopens it will be up-to-date.
7. 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?".
8. 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.

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IBM Fix Central

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: Other Software
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.

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