Webcasts for CICS TS, CICS Tools, and OMEGAMON

Each presentation is led by a technical expert who shares a specific topic and then is available for a brief question and answer period following the formal presentation. The Open Mics start with a short introduction to the topic. Afterwards, a panel of subject matter experts answer "how to" questions from customers. They do not include a formal presentation.

List of Webcasts:

• CICS Transaction Server and CICS Tools
• IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS

Visit the Support Technical Exchange site often to see the schedule of planned topics and presenters! You can also see all previous Webcasts listed by product.

CICS Transaction Server and CICS Tools

The most recent CICS Support Technical Exchanges are:

• CICS Explorer - Customizing Perspectives was conducted on 9 October 2012 by Bill Bulfin. This Technical Exchange demonstrates how to customize CICS Explorer perspectives for various user roles and environments. The presenter uses CICS TS V4.2 and the latest CICS Explorer V1.1.1.2, but the presentation applies to other versions of CICS including CICS TS for VSE/ESA.
  
  
• CPSM API Requests - Hangs and Timeouts was conductd on 18 September 2012. This presentation is a CICS Level2 perspective on the processing and handling of application programming interface (API) requests within CICSPlex SM (CPSM) when entered using the Web User Interface (WUI) or CICS Explorer. It includes debugging instructions for when a hang or timeout condition occurs.
  
  
• Achieving optimum CICS performance was conducted 14 March 2012. IBM and SHARE presented this complimentary webcast on optimizing the performance of CICS systems and applications. If you use CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS), especially if you use it with IMS Database Manager, listen to this webcast to learn how new features in these products can significantly reduce your CPU usage and improve response times.
  
  
• What is New in CICS Explorer - 1.1.0.0 was conducted 8 September 2011 by George Bogner. This presentation covers a brief history of the CICS Explorer along with information on the new features and functions in the latest release - V1.1.0.0. It includes general changes and specific areas such as the z/OS perspective, Event Processing, Atom Feeds, XML Transforms, the new SM Administration Perspective, and Java™ features.
  
  
  

Click on the following links to see the Webcasts related to specific topics:

CICS Explorer

CICS Explorer - Customizing Perspectives was conducted on 9 October 2012 by Bill Bulfin. This Technical Exchange demonstrates how to customize CICS Explorer perspectives for various user roles and environments. The presenter uses CICS TS V4.2 and the latest CICS Explorer V1.1.1.2, but the presentation applies to other versions of CICS including CICS TS for VSE/ESA. What is New in CICS Explorer - 1.1.0.0 was conducted 8 September 2011 by George Bogner. This presentation covers a brief history of the CICS Explorer along with information on the new features and functions in the latest release - V1.1.0.0. It includes general changes and specific areas such as the z/OS perspective, Event Processing, Atom Feeds, XML Transforms, the new SM Administration Perspective, and Java™ features. Allowing Users to Automate the management of CICS TS regions using CICS DA and CICS Explorer conducted on 30 November 2010, by Kathleen Sharp and Steven Horsman is designed to explain how you can use CICS Deployment Assistant for z/OS (CICS DA) to discover, model and, deploy new and existing CICS Transaction Sever for z/OS (CICS TS) regions using automation and policy-driven advice. Thus, improving productivity and reducing complexity, time to effectiveness, and risk. CICS Explorer - Getting Started on Identifying Common Problems conducted on 10 June 2010, by Bill Bulfin, highlights areas where you might experience a problem deploying or using the CICS Explorer and CICS Tools plug-ins. It describes what actions are needed to resolve the problem. CICS Explorer - Collecting troubleshooting diagnostic data conducted on 8 December 2009, by Bill Bulfin, highlights areas where you might experience problems deploying or using the IBM CICS Explorer. It describes the diagnostic information that you should collect to ensure efficient problem resolution. The presentation focuses on the Windows platform. CICS Explorer Open Mic conducted on 11 November 2009 includes a short introduction to the CICS Explorer followed by a question and answer period in which a group of subject matter experts answers questions about the topic. CICS Explorer - An Overview to the New Face of CICS Transaction Server conducted on 4 November 2009, by Byron Baldwin and Shayla Robinson, is designed to provide an overview of the CICS Explorer and its functionality as the new face of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS).

CICSPlex SM (CPSM)

CPSM API Requests - Hangs and Timeouts was conductd on 18 September 2012. This presentation is a CICS Level2 perspective on the processing and handling of application programming interface (API) requests within CICSPlex SM (CPSM) when entered using the Web User Interface (WUI) or CICS Explorer. It includes debugging instructions for when a hang or timeout condition occurs. Migrating a CICSplex from one Sysplex to another using the EYU9XDBT Utility conducted on 10 November 2010, by Brad Dixon and Greg Todaro, is designed to show how to migrate a CICSplex from one environment (Sysplex) to another using the CPSM EYU9XDBT Utility. It presents a basic step-by-step plan with samples that you can use as a model for your own shop. Using CICSPlex SM's BATCHREP conducted on 19 November 2009, by Brad Dixon and Michael Barrett, is designed to show you the basics of BATCHREP, the Batched Repository-update facility of CICSPlex SM (CPSM), with emphasis on migrating a CICSplex. CPSM Workload Manager Level Tracing conducted on 6 December 2007, presented by Michael Barrett and Tony Bertolozzi, was designed to help you determine why transactions are being routed to a particular CICS region. The emphasis was on setting up and interpreting CICSPlex SM (CPSM) Workload Manager Level Traces. Best Practices for Maintaining a Healthy CICSPlex SM Configuration conducted on 30 August 2007, presented by Brad Dixon and Bill Bulfin, will provide you with some best practices for configuring your CICSPlex SM environment to avoid problems and maintain high availability of your CICSplex. Using the CPSM WUI for problem determination in a CICSplex conducted on 14 November 2006, presented by Brad Dixon, demonstrates how CICSPlex SM (CPSM) along with the Web User Interface (WUI) provides a single system image so that problems spanning multiple LPARs can be handled quickly.

File control

CICS VSAM Threadsafe Open Mic conducted on 31 July 2008 gave customers the opportunity to ask a panel of experts at IBM questions about VSAM threadsafety in CICS. This was conducted shortly after APAR PK45354 which enables file control threadsafety for local VSAM LSR files in CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V3.2 closed. CICS File Control Debugging Techniques conducted on 3 June 2008, presented by Ed Addison, is designed to show you how debugging has become a lost art. This is the session for you if you want to build your CICS debugging skills. This session will concentrate where CICS Level 2 has seen the most problems in File Control. You will learn how to debug FCIOWAITs, Private String waits, and Enqueues. CICS and Transactional VSAM conducted on 5 April 2007, presented by Edward Addison, is designed to discuss the ability of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS to provide substantial improvements in MVS Parallel Sysplex exploitation and data sharing with integrity. Transactional VSAM (DFSMStvs) enables batch applications to share recoverable VSAM data with integrity with multiple CICS regions in the Sysplex. CICS and VSAM Performance considerations conducted on 11 May 2006, presented by Ed Addison, is designed to provide CICS and VSAM Performance considerations. Included in this session was a performance comparison of Record Level Sharing (RLS) to traditional CICS and VSAM File Control. Record Level Sharing Debugging in a CICS Environment conducted on 29 Sept 2005, presented by Edward Addison, is designed to provide RLS debugging techniques for common problems in a CICS environment.

Java

Storage Tuning of JVMs under CICS TS V3.1 or V3.2 on z/OS conducted on 23 January 2007, presented by Katie Glynn, describes how to calculate the proper size for Java Virtual Machine (JVM) heaps and stack storage within CICS Transaction Server. It includes information about sizing the Language Environment (LE) enclave for the JVM. There is some discussion about reusable JVMs and how they affect region performance and storage consumption. Debugging Java Application in CICS conducted on 7 December 2006, presented by Shayla Robinson, is designed to show you what documentation to collect and where to begin when it comes to resolving common problems within your CICS region when running Java applications. Avoiding Common Problems Through Proper Setup of CICS and Java conducted on 14 September 2006, presented by Shayla Robinson, is designed to demonstrate how to setup Java support in a CICS environment and how to setup CICS as an Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) server. It focuses on setup in CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V2.3 and above. Understanding CICS and Java conducted on 1 Dec 2005, presented by Shayla Robinson, is designed to provide an overview of Java support within CICS. It highlights the progress CICS has made through recent performance enhancements.

DB2

CICS Performance - Blow the doors off CICS DB2 conducted on 13 January 2009, presented by John Tilling, will give you a better understanding of the features shipped with CICS TS for z/OS that affect CICS DB2 performance. Highlights include extensive support for DB2 group attach, DB2 V8 restart-light support, enhanced purge support, and exploitation of the CICS open transaction environment (OTE) for threadsafe applications. CICS and DB2 Debugging Tips conducted on 8 March 2007, presented by Dan Zachary, describes how to use a CICS system dump to expose the root cause of task hangs. The emphasis is on task hangs having to do with CICS and DB2, but the techniques discussed are also applicable to other types of task hangs

Storage

CICS Storage 102 - Debugging CICS Short on Storage Conditions was conducted on 10 August 2011 by Sarah Bertram and Erich Hoppe. This Support Technical Exchange focuses on short on storage conditions inside CICS Transaction Server for z/OS and shows debugging techniques using system dumps. This session is designed to be a continuation of the CICS Storage 101 presentation given in November 2010. Approaching COBOL Storage Overlays in CICS conducted on 24 November 2010, by Paul Albrecht, is designed to offer diagnostic approaches for COBOL application storage overlays within CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS). These approaches include using CICS dumps with and without an active trace. CICS, Language Environment (LE), and COBOL storage areas, control blocks, and diagnostic methods are also reviewed. CICS Storage 101 - A Look into CICS Dynamic Storage Areas conducted on 17 November 2010, by Sarah Bertram and Erich Hoppe, is designed to provide a look into CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS) dynamic storage areas (DSAs). It shows how the DSAs are managed using examples from a system dump. Serviceability for COBOL working storage in the CICS environment conducted on 12 November 2009, by Paul Albrecht, offers alternative approaches to diagnosing COBOL working storage overlays that reside outside of the scope of the CICS storage checker and COBOL's language features. The approaches include coding concepts, along with CICS dump and trace diagnostics. Debugging Storage Violations in CICS conducted on 13 July 2006, presented by Scott McClure, is designed to cover diagnostic approaches to debugging storage violations in a CICS region.

Web services

Atom Feeds - Enabling CICS applications to be web feeds conducted on 8 September 2010, by Shayla Robinson and Byron Baldwin, is designed to provide an understanding of how a CICS application can populate a feed by writing to a temporary storage queue. CICS Web Services Part 2 - Deployment conducted 29 September 2009, by Nigel Williams, includes best practice recommendations for deploying CICS Web Services. The presentation addresses security, availability, and performance. It also includes a case-study from a customer deployment of CICS Web Services. CICS Web services Part 1 - Development conducted 22 September 2009, by Paul Cooper, contains an overview of CICS Web services and advice and best practice recommendations for developing Web services. It also includes an introduction to using IBM Rational Developer for System z (RD/z). CICS Web services structure and debugging conducted on 18 June 2009, by Charlie Wiese, briefly reviews Web services processing and configuration requirements, before discussing detailed diagnostic techniques and approaches to identifying problems. The session also discusses the type of documentation that is useful for observing Web services processing errors. CICS Web services Open Mic conducted on 27 August 2008 gave customers the opportunity to ask a panel of experts at IBM questions about CICS Web services. CICS Web Services: Problems and Pitfalls conducted on 12 June 2008, presented by Charlie Wiese, is designed to show you how CICS Web services gives new life to established applications and a new delivery vehicle for vital business applications. You will learn techniques for investigating problems in CICS Web services processing, and discover solutions for the most common errors seen by the Support Center. Extending SOA and CICS with Web 2.0 conducted on 11 June 2008, presented by Peter Havercan, explains how, with SupportPac CA8K, you can use existing CICS Web support facilities to deliver atom feeds containing data from CICS. Understanding Urimaps, Pipelines and Webservices for CICS conducted on 4 October 2007, presented by Steve Webb, shows how the URIMAP, PIPELINE and WEBSERVICE definitions in CICS interact with each other and how they can be used for a service provider and service requester environment as part of an SOA solution. It focuses on CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V3.2. CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V3.2 - Continuing to put the S in SOA conducted on 4 April 2007, presented by Catherine Moxey, discussed CICS TS V3.2 and how it enables CICS Web services that can interoperate with tools, infrastructure, and service components that support the latest W3C standard for WSDL.

Troubleshooting

CPSM API Requests - Hangs and Timeouts was conductd on 18 September 2012. This presentation is a CICS Level2 perspective on the processing and handling of application programming interface (API) requests within CICSPlex SM (CPSM) when entered using the Web User Interface (WUI) or CICS Explorer. It includes debugging instructions for when a hang or timeout condition occurs. The CICS-MQ Adapter - How to Use a CICS System Dump to Investigate Hangs was conducted on 9 December 2010, by Dan Zachary. How do you mine a CICS system dump for information about tasks that are hung making WebSphere MQ calls? Is control in MQ? What is the call? What program made the call? How long has control been in MQ? This Support Technical Exchange explores these questions and more using CICS and MQ dump formatters and Fault Analyzer. Intermediate CICS debugging techniques - More IPCS for CICS dump analysis conducted on 02 June 2009, by Sarah Bertram and Charlie Wiese, is designed as a continuation of the information provided in "CICS Debugging Basics" (originally presented on 20 September 2007). This presentation describes further commands and techniques useful for examining CICS System dumps using IPCS. CICS Hangs and Slowdowns - How to use a dump to determine the cause conducted on 21 April 2009, by Dan Zachary, shows how to use the CICS IPCS VERBX dump formatters and the z/OS dump formatters to identify the cause of CICS hangs and severe slowdowns. IBM Session Manager for z/OS: Collecting Diagnostics conducted on 2 December 2008 highlighted the types of problems most often reported to level 2 support for IBM Session Manager for z/OS. The presentation described the diagnostic information which should be collected to ensure efficient problem resolution. Debugging IRLINK Waits within CICS conducted on 1 November 2007, presented by Scott McClure, will help you determine why your remote tasks appear to hang with a status of IRLINK Wait. This presentation will guide you through the debug process to determine why and where your remote transaction is hung. CICS Debugging Basics conducted on 20 September 2007, presented by Sarah Bertram and Charlie Wiese, was designed to provide a brief introduction to techniques used to examine CICS System dumps using IPCS. Different types of dumps were discussed and excerpts from a sample dump was used to illustrate the commands and concepts associated with the IPCS and CICS verb exit. CICS TS and LE Migration and Diagnostic Enhancements conducted on 8 February 2007, presented by Paul Albrecht, covers the CICS translator enhancements that address various COBOL migration problems. It also recommends Language Environment (LE) runtime options, covers LE storage utilization and tuning, and introduces diagnostic enhancements. Note: there are additional troubleshooting presentations included under the other specific topics like File Control and Java.

Other topics

Achieving optimum CICS performance was conducted 14 March 2012. IBM and SHARE presented this complimentary webcast on optimizing the performance of CICS systems and applications. If you use CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS), especially if you use it with IMS Database Manager, listen to this webcast to learn how new features in these products can significantly reduce your CPU usage and improve response times. Running and Debugging Dynamic Scripting Applications under CICS was conducted on 8 September by Byron Baldwin and Shayla Robinson. This Support Technical Exchange is designed to show you how to run and debug dynamic scripting (PHP) applications in a CICS environment. Understanding your CICS Interdependency Analyzer Data was conducted on 27 July 2011 by Emyr James. This Support Technical Exchange is designed to give an overview of CICS Interdependency Analyzer for z/OS (CICS IA). The presentation will include answers to questions like what data does CICS IA capture, how do you load your CICS IA data, and how do you use the CICS IA Explorer plug-in to view your CICS IA data. IBM Session Manager for z/OS - Best Practices for Monitoring and Configuring Storage Usage was conducted on 25 May 2011 by Bill Bulfin. This Support Technical Exchange is designed to highlight some of the best practices for monitoring and configuring storage usage for IBM Session Manager for z/OS (ISM). Setting up Security for CICS Configuration Manager for z/OS was conducted on 17 May 2011 by Satish Tanna. This Support Technical Exchange is designed to cover topics related to setting up CICS Configuration Manager for z/OS (CICS CM) security including the use of passtickets and the use of secure socket layer to connect to the CICS CM server. The presentation also discusses considerations with respect to using an external security manager such as RACF to control access to the CICS resource definitions. CL/SUPERSESSION Top 10 Issues and Solutions was conducted on 4 May 2011 by Sue Demarrais, Tom LaRocco, and Wayne Winsor. This Support Technical Exchange is designed to discuss many of the most active IBM CL/SUPERSESSION for z/OS problems and solutions. The use of the SUPERSESSION Support Portal to find the most current maintenance, manuals, and technotes. And, a list of items needed to use IMS V10 and later. Implementing Security with IBM Session Manager for z/OS was conducted on 2 March 2011, by Peter Siddell. This Support Technical Exchange is designed to look at the methods for implementing security with IBM Session Manager for z/OS (ISM). Topics covered include Certificate Express Logon, Pass Tickets, and Pass Phrases and what is required to support them. Using CICS Dynamic Scripting was conducted on 11 January 2011, by Jonathan Lawrence. CICS Dynamic Scripting integrates Project Zero into CICS TS V4.1, providing a runtime for PHP and Groovy applications. CICS assets can be exposed via REST or AJAX interfaces. This presentation is designed to review the Zero programming model and show examples of CICS scripting. Introduction to CICS Dynamic Scripting in CICS TS 4.1 conducted on 12 October 2010, by Jonathan Lawrence, provides an introduction to CICS Dynamic Scripting which integrates Project Zero technology into CICS TS V4.1, providing a robust environment for PHP and Groovy applications and web feeds. Tight integration with existing CICS applications and data allows CICS assets to be exposed as RESTful services or Web 2.0 AJAX interfaces. CICS event processing Open Mic conducted on 30 July 2009 gave customers the opportunity to ask a panel of experts at IBM questions about CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS) V4.1 event processing. Getting Products from the Internet conducted on 10 June 2009, by Greg Daynes, explains how z/OS products can be acquired either as part of a system replacement offering or in a product upgrade offering. Then describes the advantages of each offering, as well as how to acquire products electronically. SMP/E Internet Service Retrieval simplifies ordering and delivery of PTFs conducted on 5 February 2009, by Gregory Daynes, discusses the myriad of ways to get service. It compares and contrasts the numerous service acquisition tools, highlighting the SMP/E RECEIVE ORDER function of SMP/E Internet Service Retrieval. CICS Performance Basics conducted on 3 February 2009 2, presented by Daniel Zachary, clarifies the meaning of the most important CICS Performance Class Monitoring fields. It shows how to access these fields in a dump, and how to use them to identify the source of performance problems. Open Mic - Changes to Console Support within CICS and z/OS conducted on 16 December 2008 allowed our CICS clients to ask a panel of experts from z/OS and CICS questions about recent changes to console support. IP Interconnectivity (IPIC) Connection Overview conducted on 10 December 2008 presented a technical overview of the changes to CICS connectivity with TCP/IP. CICS TS V3.2 allows communication between CICS regions using TCP/IP as a transport for processing Distributed Program Link requests. CICS tools 2007 family update - Service management and compliance for CICS conducted on 11 April 2007, presented by Steven H. Bryant, Technical Sales Specialist, describes the new developments coming to the CICS tools family in 2007. This Webcast discussed how the CICS tools portfolio supports your move to the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V3.2. How security works in a CICS MRO and LU62 environment conducted on 2 Nov 2005, presented by Scott McClure, is designed to provide information about how security works in a CICS MRO and LU62 environment. This presentation focused on security but also discussed an important change made to EXEC CICS SIGNON and SIGNOFF.

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IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS

For OMEGAMON Support Technical Exchanges, see the Tivoli Technical Exchange Webcasts page.

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