Changing connection information for the CICSRequest node

You can create a configurable service that the CICSRequest node or message flow refers to at run time for connection information, instead of defining the connection properties on the node or the message flow. The advantage being that you can change the host name and performance values without needing to redeploy your message flow.

Before you begin

Read Configurable services to find out more about configurable services.
Read CICS Transaction Server for z/OS overview for background information.

About this task

Use the CICSConnection configurable service to change the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS connection information for the CICSRequest node. The advantage being that you can change the host name, performance, and security identity values without needing to redeploy your message flow. The properties of the CICSConnection configurable service are described in Configurable services properties.

You can use the CICSConnection configurable service to configure the CICSRequest node to use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. For more information, see Securing the connection to CICS Transaction Server for z/OS by using SSL.

Creating, changing, reporting, and deleting configurable services

Procedure

To create a configurable service, use the web user interface or the mqsicreateconfigurableservice command, as shown in the following example.
This example creates a CICSConnection configurable service for the CICS instance that is running at test.cics.ibm.com port 12345. The integration node is identified by APPLID BRKApp and qualifier BRKQual. The connection timeout is 10 seconds, the request timeout is 5 seconds, and the security identity is identified by mySecurityIdentity in this example:
```
mqsicreateconfigurableservice IBNODE -c CICSConnection -o myCICSConnectionService
-n cicsServer,clientApplid,clientQualifier,connectionTimeoutSecs,requestTimeoutSecs,
securityIdentity
-v tcp://test.cics.ibm.com:12345,BRKApp,BRKQual,10,5,mySecurityIdentity
```
To change a configurable service, use the web user interface or the mqsichangeproperties command, as shown in the following example. You must stop and start the integration server for the change of property value to take effect.
This example changes the CICSRequest node that is configured to use the myCICSConnectionService configurable service. After you run this command, the CICSRequest node connects to the production system (tcp://production.cics.ibm.com:12345) instead of the test system (tcp://test.cics.ibm.com:12345).
```
mqsichangeproperties IBNODE -c CICSConnection -o myCICSConnectionService
  -n cicsServer -v tcp://production.cics.ibm.com:12345
```
See Securing the connection to CICS Transaction Server for z/OS by using SSL for information about how to turn on SSL support in the integration node by setting the cicsServer CICSConnection configurable service property.
To display all CICSConnection configurable services, use the web user interface or the mqsireportproperties command, as shown in the following example:
```
mqsireportproperties IBNODE -c CICSConnection -o AllReportableEntityNames -r
```
To delete a configurable service that you created, use the web user interface or the mqsideleteconfigurableservice command, as shown in the following example:
```
mqsideleteconfigurableservice IBNODE -c CICSConnection -o myCICSConnectionService
```
You can delete only configurable services that you created; you cannot delete IBM® predefined configurable service templates.