In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, we discuss CICS®, which stands for Customer Information Control System. It is a general-purpose transaction processing subsystem for the z/OS® operating system. CICS provides services for running an application online where, users submit requests to run applications simultaneously. CICS manages sharing resources, the integrity of data, and prioritizes execution with fast response. CICS authorizes users, allocates resources (real storage and cycles), and passes on database requests by the application to the appropriate database manager, such as DB2®. We review the history of CICS and why it was created. We review the CICS architecture and discuss how to create an application in CICS. CICS provides a secure, transactional environment for applications that are written in several languages. We discuss the CICS-supported languages and each language's advantages in this Redbooks publication. We analyze situations from a system programmer's viewpoint, including how the systems programmer can use CICS facilities and services to customize the system, design CICS for recovery, and manage performance. CICS Data access and where the data is stored, including Temporary storage queues, VSAM RLS, DB2, IMSTM, and many others are also discussed.

The IBM® CICS® Transaction Server for z/VSE® (CICS TS for z/VSE) 2.1 provides functions to improve application programming, system programming, system management, and data security and availability. With CICS TS for z/VSE 2.1, you can use the extended functionality of Basic Security Manager. CICS TS for z/VSE 2.1 can be administrated by the IBM CICS Explorer® function on a workstation, which allows CICS management in a convenient way. This IBM Redbooks® publication provides information to help you install, tailor, and configure the CICS TS for z/VSE 2.1 product. The book is intended for IBM z/VSE customers and IBM technical personnel who are responsible for planning and migrating to IBM z/VSE 6.1 and CICS TS for z/VSE 2.1. The book also provides information to help you understand the affect of migrating to CICS TS for z/VSE 2.1. It provides detailed guidance and samples for installing and configuring CICS TS for z/VSE 2.1. Also included in the book is a description of the CICS TS for z/VSE 2.1 features and capabilities and the affect of removing obsolete functions. The book also covers security and performance issues and provides samples for first level problem determination through the use of memory dumps or the use of trace tools.

NOTE: This book contains information about technologies that have been superseded and it is retained for historical purposes only. IBM CICS Transaction Server (CICS TS) has supported the deployment of Java applications since the 1990's. In CICS TS V1.3 (1999), IBM introduced the 'Pooled JVM' style of JVM infrastructure within CICS TS. This infrastructure was designed to be similar in nature to that which a CICS application developer for a language such as COBOL would be used to. It brought the benefits of the new Java language to CICS TS, without a dramatic change to the way CICS users thought of core concepts such as re-entrancy and isolation. As enterprise usage of Java evolved it began to make more and more use of multi-threaded environments where isolation was not a desired characteristic. Additionally, technologies such as OSGi (Open Service Gateway Initiative) evolved to overcome some of the original disadvantages of applying Java to an enterprise environment. As such, the limitations of the 'Pooled JVM' approach began to outweigh the benefits. In CICS TS V4.1 (2009), IBM introduced the new 'JVM server' infrastructure in CICS TS as a replacement to the 'Pooled JVM' approach. This 'JVM server' infrastructure provides a much more standard Java environment that makes the writing and porting of Java applications for CICS TS much simpler. In CICS TS V5.1 (2012), support for the old 'Pooled JVM' infrastructure was removed. While there is a relatively simple migration path from 'Pooled JVM' to 'JVM server', applications should no longer be written to the 'Pooled JVM' infrastructure. There are a number of more recent IBM Redbooks publications covering the replacement 'JVM server' technology, including: IBM CICS and the JVM server: Developing and Deploying Java Applications, SG24-8038 A Software Architect's guide to New Java Workloads in IBM CICS Transaction Server, SG24-8225

In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, you will gain an appreciation of the IBM CICS® Transaction Gateway (CICS TG) product suite, based on key criteria, such as capabilities, scalability, platform, CICS server support, application language support, and licensing model. Matching the requirements to available infrastructure and hardware choices requires an appreciation of the choices available. In this book, you will gain an understanding of those choices, and will be capable of choosing the appropriate CICS connection protocol, APIs for the applications, and security options. You will understand the services available to the application developer when using a chosen protocol. You will then learn about how to implement CICS TG solutions, taking advantage of the latest capabilities, such as IPIC connectivity, high availability, and Dynamic Server Selection. Specific scenarios illustrate the usage of CICS TG for IBM z/OS®, and CICS TG for Multiplatforms, with CICS Transaction Server for z/OS and IBM WebSphere® Application Server, including connections in CICS, configuring simple end-to-end connectivity (all platforms) with verification for remote and local mode applications, and adding security, XA support, and high availability.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the new channels and containers support in IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS®) Transaction Server V5.2. The book begins with an overview of the techniques used to pass data between applications running in CICS. This book describes the constraints that these data techniques might be subject to, and how a channels and containers solution can provide solid advantages alongside these techniques. These capabilities enable CICS to fully comply with emerging technology requirements in terms of sizing and flexibility. The book then goes on to describe application design, and looks at implementing channels and containers from an application programmer point of view. It provides examples to show how to evolve channels and containers from communication areas (COMMAREAs). Next, the book explains the channels and containers application programming interface (API). It also describes how this API can be used in both traditional CICS applications and a Java CICS (JCICS) applications. The business transaction services (BTS) API is considered as a similar yet recoverable alternative to channels and containers. Some authorized program analysis reports (APARs) are introduced, which enable more flexible web services features by using channels and containers. The book also presents information from a systems management point of view, describing the systems management and configuration tasks and techniques that you must consider when implementing a channels and containers solution. The book chooses a sample application in the CICS catalog manager example, and describes how you can port an existing CICS application to use channels and containers rather than using COMMAREAs.

It goes without saying that 2009 was a year of unprecedented change in global banking. The challenges that financial institutions are facing require them to cut costs but also to regain trust and improve the service that they provide to an increasingly sophisticated and demanding set of customers. In the past, siloed and rigid IT systems often inhibited banks in their attempts to re-engineer their business processes. The IBM® smarter banking initiative highlights how more intelligent software can be used to significantly improve the end-to-end integration of banking processes. In this IBM Redbooks® publication, we aim to show how software technologies, such as SOA, Web 2.0 and event driven architectures, can be used to implement smarter banking solutions. Our focus is on CICS® Transaction Server, which is at the heart of most bank's core banking implementations.

This IBM® Redpaper Redbooks® publication introduces the IBM System z® New Application License Charges (zNALC) pricing structure and provides examples of zNALC workload scenarios. It describes the products that can be run on a zNALC logical partition (LPAR), reasons to consider such an implementation, and covers the following topics: Using the IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile to host applications within an IBM CICS® environment and how it interacts with CICS applications and resources Security technologies available to applications that are hosted within a WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile in CICS How to implement modern presentation in CICS with a CICS Liberty Java virtual machine (JVM) server How to share scenarios to develop Liberty JVM applications to gain benefits from IBM CICS Transaction Server for IBM z/OS® Value Unit Edition Considerations when using mobile devices to interact with CICS applications and explains specific CICS technologies for connecting mobile devices by using the z/OS Value Unit Edition How IBM Operational Decision Manager for z/OS runs in the transaction server to provide decision management services for CICS COBOL and PL/I applications Installing the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS) Feature Pack for Modern Batch to enable the IBM WebSphere® batch environment to schedule and manage batch applications in CICS This book also covers what is commonly referred to as plain old Java objects (POJOs). The Java virtual machine (JVM) server is a full-fledged JVM that includes support for Open Service Gateway initiative (OSGi) bundles. It can be used to host open source Java frameworks and does just about anything you want to do with Java on the mainframe. POJO applications can also qualify for deployment using the Value Unit Edition. Read about how to configure and deploy them in this companion Redbooks publication: IBM CICS and the JVM server: Developing and Deploying Java Applications, SG24-8038 Examples of POJOs are terminal-initiated transactions, CICS web support, web services, requests received via IP CICS sockets, and messages coming in via IBM WebSphere MQ messaging software.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides an example approach of an agile IT team that implements development and operations (DevOps) capabilities into an IBM CICS® application. Several tools are used to show how teams can achieve transparency, traceability, and automation in their application lifecycle with the assistance of all the stakeholders to deliver high-quality application changes that meet the requirements. The application changes that are built highlight the composable and dynamic nature of using CICS, the Liberty JVM runtime server, and IBM UrbanCodeTM Deploy, which allows developers to get their applications running quickly by using only the programming model features that are required for their applications. The target audience for this publication is IT developers, managers, and architects, and project managers, test managers and developers, and operations managers and developers.

The challenges of designing, building, and maintaining large-scale, distributed enterprise systems are truly daunting. Written for all IT professionals, The Complete Book of Middleware will aid in resolving new business objectives, new technologies, and vendor disputes. This book focuses on the essential principles and priorities of system design and emphasizes the new requirements brought forward by the rise of e-commerce and distributed integrated systems. This reference highlights the changes to middleware technologies and standards. It offers a concise overview of middleware technology alternatives and distributed systems. Many increasingly complex examples are incorporated throughout and the book concludes with guidelines on the practice of IT architecture. Performance considerations such as caching and monitoring are reviewed and the appendix includes middleware resources and new modeling standards. The scope includes traditional middleware and also next-generation techniques that serve to glue disparate systems in the ever-expanding world of distributed network systems. Provided with concepts, principles, and alternatives discussed in The Complete Book of Middleware, systems architects, systems analysts, systems designers, systems developers, and programmers, can proceed with greater confidence in designing complex enterprise systems.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication is intended to make System Programmers, Operators, and Availability Managers aware of the enhancements to recent releases of IBM z/OS® and its major subsystems in the area of planned outage avoidance. It is a follow-on to, rather than a replacement for, z/OS Planned Outage Avoidance Checklist, SG24-7328. Its primary objective is to bring together in one place information that is already available, but widely dispersed. It also presents a different perspective on planned outage avoidance. Most businesses care about application availability rather than the availability of a specific system. Also, a planned outage is not necessarily a bad thing, if it does not affect application availability. In fact, running for too long without an IPL or subsystem restart might have a negative impact on application availability because it impacts your ability to apply preventive service. Therefore, this book places more focus on decoupling the ability to make changes and updates to your system from IPLing or restarting your systems.