Testing with DB2 on z/OS systems

IBM® Rational® Integration Tester supports the recording and virtualization of CICS® COBOL DB2® programs on z/OS®.

Testing, recording and virtualization of SQL events from CICS COBOL DB2 programs on z/OS is achieved in the same way as for other databases, however some additional setup is required:

When you configure the physical view of the database connection, more information is required. Mappings between the Host Name Alias and Subsystem IDs must be configured. For information about this mapping, see Configuring the database connection.
Before testing can begin, both components of the CLIP agent must be installed, configured, and then started. The CLIP agent manages communications between the CICS COBOL DB2 program and Rational Integration Tester components. The CLIP agent front-end also provides the functions of the JDBC Proxy. For an overview of the CLIP agent, see Understanding the Compiled Language Interception Processor (CLIP).
CICS Application Debugging Profiles must be created to determine which transactions are monitored for DB2 events. For information about the creating a profile, see Set up for a CICS Application Debugging Profile (CADP).

For general information about how to configure database resources and SQL tests in Rational Integration Tester, see Database resources, connections, and bindings.

Supported environments

The recording and virtualization of SQL events from CICS COBOL DB2 programs on z/OS is supported in only these environments:

z/OS: Versions 1.13, 2.1
DB2: Versions 10.1, 11.1
CICS: Versions 4.1, 4.2, 5.1
COBOL: Versions 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1

General limitations

The CLIP agent front-end is available for Windows systems only.
The only JDBC driver that is supported is IBM DB2 (Universal).
DBRM files for the application must be made available to the CLIP agent front-end.
- In the application environment, you must set the AQE_DBG_DBRM z/OS environment variable to specify the dataset that contains the DBRM files
- Only DBRM with Entry Statement format 2 is supported, specified in DSNXNBRM.
- The DBRM files must have the same name as the corresponding program name.
CICS regions must specify the RENTPGM=NOPROTECT option in the system initialization table (SIT).

SQL statement and data type limitations

These SQL statements and behaviors are not supported for recording, learning, or virtualization:

FETCH CURRENT CONTINUE
Set the sensitivity of the cursor more precisely
Using SQLDA structure to prepare and execute dynamic SQL
PREVIOUS VALUE FOR clause that can be used in select/insert/update
ALTER INDEX with REGENERATE or ADD INCLUDE clause.
ALTER VIEW

These features are not supported:

Learning with UPDATE/DELETE with cursor statement.
Learning or virtualizing SELECT/INSTER/UPDATE statements that refer to columns that have data types:
- TIMESTAMP(0)
- TIMESTAMP(P)
- TIMESTAMP(0) WITH TIME ZONE
- TIMESTAMP(P) WITH TIME ZONE
- BLOB file reference
- CLOB file reference
- DBCLOB file reference
- XML BLOB file reference
- XML CLOB file reference
- XML DBCLOB file reference
- Result set locator
- Table locator
- DBCLOB locator

Set up for a CICS Application Debugging Profile (CADP)

Because the CLIP agent uses CICS interactive debugger technology, you must use the CADP transaction to set up a CADP profile to determine which transactions to monitor for DB2 events. For information about how to use the CADP transaction, see Starting a CICS debugging session in the Integrated Debugger.

CICS provides the CADP transaction, which allows users to define a set of filters. If a transaction starts on the region that matches the specified filters, CICS invokes the appropriate debugger or tool on the transaction. The CADP profile must specify the hostname/IP and port number of the listening CLIP agent front-end.
When you set up the CADP profile, remember this information:
- The hostname or IP must be prefixed with RIT& so that the CLIP agent back-end (probe) can co-exist with other debuggers and tools that might be configured on the CICS region.
- To specify which transactions, program, compile unit, userid or terminal will trigger the tool, use the filters on the CADP profile. Specify the * wildcard on all of these fields, with the possible exception of the userid field if you want to only record or virtualize code that is started by your ID. Because you might not know which transaction calls other transactions or programs, using a wildcard on all the fields is a way to ensure that everything on the region is monitored for DB2 events.
  Note: The filters can be narrower, but recording and virtualization will not capture events that do not match the filter. Multiple profiles with different filters can be active at the same time.
- Each profile must also specify the AQE_DBG_DBRM environment variable. This variable must specify the location of the relevant DBRM files for the transactions or programs being recorded or virtualized. The DBRM files are DB2 artifacts that are produced by the user's application build.

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