IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, V5.5 is enhanced with the continuous delivery model and the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, V5.6 open beta offering is introduced

IBM United States Software Announcement 219-465
October 1, 2019

Table of contents

	Overview		Technical information
	Key requirements		Ordering information
	Planned availability date		Terms and conditions
	Description		Order now
	Program number

Overview

IBM® CICS® Transaction Server for z/OS® (CICS TS), a powerful, mixed-language application server, processes hundreds of thousands of business transactions every second.

Enhancements to CICS TS V5.5 with the continuous delivery model

The continuous delivery (CD) model for CICS TS further extends its capabilities with innovative new functions and additional enhancements. The following key features are delivered in this CD release of CICS TS V5.5:

Support for applications written to the Java™ EE 8 Full platform specification
Support for administering and monitoring Liberty applications using the Admin Center feature
Updated CICS plug-in for Maven to automate the building of a richer set of bundle artifacts

Availability of the CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering

For clients who want to explore potential new CICS capability and assess the value to their business, an open beta offering is available. It can be downloaded, at no charge, from the IBM CICS open beta offering website.

The following capabilities are introduced in the CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering:

A new API to simplify bundle development during development
Numerous enhancements to the technical foundation of CICS TS

Key requirements

For CICS TS V5.5, CICS TS Value Unit Edition V5.5, and CICS TS Developer Trial V5.5:

The minimum required hardware prerequisite is IBM zEnterprise® 196 or subsequent 64-bit IBM z/Architecture® processors.
The minimum required level of operating system is IBM z/OS, V2.2 (5650-ZOS).
The minimum required level of Java is IBM 64-bit SDK for z/OS, Java Technology Edition, V8.0.

For the CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering:

The minimum required hardware prerequisite is IBM zEnterprise 196 or subsequent 64-bit IBM z/Architecture processors.
The minimum required level of operating system is IBM z/OS, V2.2 (5650-ZOS).
The minimum required level of Java is IBM 64-bit SDK for z/OS, Java Technology Edition, V8.0.

Details of system requirements for CICS products are available at the Software Product Compatibility Reports website.

Planned availability date

October 1, 2019: The majority of CICS TS V5.5 CD enhancements
October 31, 2019: CICS TS V5.6 open beta
December 31, 2019: The remainder of CICS TS V5.5 CD enhancements

Description

CICS TS for z/OS, V5.5 was generally available on December 14, 2018, and updated in July 2019.

Enhancements to CICS TS V5.5 that are included in the CD model

With this latest update, CICS TS V5.5 delivers a number of new and enhanced capabilities by using the standard CICS TS service channel to implement a CD model. For details of related Software Announcements for CD models and general availability of products, see the Reference information section.

Support for applications that are written to the Java EE 8 Full Platform specification

By using the embedded version of IBM WebSphere® Liberty (Liberty), CICS TS V5.5 now supports applications that are written to the Java Enterprise Edition (EE) 8 Full Platform specification in integrated mode. Java EE 8 includes many new and enhanced APIs, such as:

JSON processing
RESTful web services
Authentication by using custom identity stores
JavaMail™

Java EE 8 also provides new versions of features for:

JavaBean validation
Servlets
JavaServer Faces
Contexts and Dependency Injection (CDI).

Java applications that are hosted in CICS TS are integrated with a CICS task by default and can use the J CICS API to call other CICS programs and services. This provides a powerful mechanism to modernize CICS applications by using the latest Java EE 8 features and capabilities.

Support for administering and monitoring Liberty applications by using the Admin Center feature

Support for the Liberty Admin Center is introduced into CICS TS V5.5. The Liberty Admin Center, a web-based graphical interface, provides administrators and developers with the capability to deploy, monitor, and configure Liberty servers and applications.

Updated CICS plug-in for Maven to automate building a richer set of bundle artifacts

CICS TS V5.5 delivers further enhancements to the development experience for developers who are familiar with a Maven-style approach to automatic dependency resolution and build chains. In particular, these new enhancements are useful for Java developers who can now build CICS bundles containing Java artifacts, together with a wide range of other CICS resources that could be used in a CICS Java application without any hard requirement to use the CICS Explorer® SDK. This functionality can be used with CICS TS V5.2, or later, and builds on the capabilities already delivered in CICS TS by providing:

A cics-bundle-maven open-source project that contains a collection of Maven plug-ins and utilities. The collection can be used to build CICS bundles as part of a Maven build, ready to be installed into CICS TS.
A CICS bundle Maven plug-in (named cics-bundle-maven-plugin) is delivered as part of an open source project and supports the building of CICS bundles containing any of the following bundle parts. This is in addition to WAR (.war), EAR (.ear), and OSGI bundle (.osgibundle) files, as previously announced:
- Event Binding (.evbind)
- Event processing adapter (.epadapter)
- Event processing adapter set (.epadapterset)
- File (.file)
- LIBRARY resource (.library)
- Policy (.policy)
- Program (.program)
- TCP/IP service (.tcpipservice)
- Transaction (.transaction)
- URI map (.urimap)
The CICS bundle Maven plug-in can be used to create CICS bundles by using the Maven command-line tool or environments that support Maven, including Eclipse, IntelliJ, and VS Code.
The CICS bundle Maven plug-in can push lifecycle bundles, as part of a Maven build, by using the bundle deployment API that is delivered as part of the CICS TS, V5.6 open beta offering.

List of CICS TS V5.5 enhancements with the CD model

IBM follows a CD roadmap for current releases of CICS TS that delivers regular capability updates by using the standard CICS TS service channel. The following table lists the enhancements that were applied to CICS TS V5.5, as part of this CD update:

Capability	Availability method
Support for applications written to the Java EE 8 Full Platform specification	CICS TS V5.5 APAR PH15017
Administer and monitor Liberty applications using the Admin Center feature	CICS TS V5.5 APAR PH08321
Maven plug-in to build CICS bundles that include a broad set of bundle artifacts	Available as an open source project

The CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering

The CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering is introduced to allow clients to assess and provide feedback on potential future CICS TS capabilities.

API to simplify bundle deployment during development
To improve the developer experience for developers in CICS TS, a new API is delivered to the CMCI JVM server. This REST API receives a POSTed-zipped CICS bundle and metadata, which includes the CICSPlex®, CICS region, and a CICS bundle definition. The CICS bundle is installed and enabled into the appropriate CICS region, with any existing CICS bundle disabled and discarded where required. A subset of CICS resources and artifacts, primarily those that are applicable to Java developers, are supported within CICS bundles deployed in this way.

This API is most powerful in conjunction with updates to the CICS plug-in for Maven, where a developer who uses a Maven tool chain can choose to have a CICS bundle installed as part of their build process.

This function significantly simplifies the CICS knowledge required by a Java developer who is able to use Maven, and improves the developer's workflow.
New Policy system rule types
Support for the following new Policy system rule types is introduced:
- DBCTL connection status, to monitor and react to the change in status of a connection between CICS and DBCTL
- IBM MQ connection status, to monitor and react to the change in status of a connection between CICS and IBM MQ
- Pipeline enable status, to monitor and react to the change in the enable status of a CICS PIPELINE resource
New z/OS workload management health policy action
Support is added for a new policy action for all system rules to increase or decrease the z/OS workload management (WLM) health value of a CICS region, when all the rules conditions are met.
VERIFY TOKEN command support for JavaScript™ Object Notation Web Tokens
The VERIFY TOKEN command has been enhanced to support JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Web Tokens (JWTs) provided by IBM RACF®. With this capability, a users' basic authentication credentials can be converted to a time-limited secure token. This is particularly useful where applications currently using passwords are converted to use multifactor authentication (MFA) tokens. This support requires RACF APAR OA55926 and IBM System Authorization Facility ( SAF ) APAR OA55927.
New monitoring capability for the security domain
CICS TS supports many different types of authentication. Some of these involve other components in addition to the external security manager (ESM). To make it easier to diagnose authentication problems, monitoring is now introduced for the security domain. This enhancement includes the following functional updates:
- The performance data in group DFHTASK provides two new fields that indicate the total elapsed time that a user task spent verifying authentication credentials.
- The user domain statistics provide new global statistics, giving a more comprehensive view of user instances.
- CICS now collects global statistics on the security domain, providing a comprehensive view of authentication requests.
GMTRAN option DISCONNECT that is extended to CESF
The DISCONNECT option of the GMTRAN system initialization parameter is extended to the CICS-supplied sign-off transaction CESF. This forces the terminal session to be disconnected upon sign-off. This enhancement increases user's control over terminal session security by preventing access to CICS at the terminal when it is running only with the default user ID.
Improved reporting and action for z/OS short on storage conditions
New resilience features are added to guard against shortage of z/OS 24-bit and 31-bit storage. For security calls that use L8 open task control blocks (TCBs), a limit of a third of max task number of TCBs can be used. CICS ensures the L8 TCB is released from the task upon completion of the security call, if the TCB was only acquired for the security call.
Resource definition online enhanced to support definition of DUMPCODEs
The standard Resource definition online (RDO) interfaces, CEDA, DFHCSDUP, EXEC CICS CREATE, and EXEC CICS CSD, are enhanced to support the definition of transaction dump codes and system dump codes through the new DUMPCODE resources. This allows DUMPCODEs for a CICS region to be installed at startup and removes the need to write a program list table (PLT) program that uses the SET TRANDUMPCODE ADD and SET SYSDUMPCODE ADD system programming commands to add dump codes. These commands remain supported. DUMPCODEs now have a resource signature returned on the SPI commands to denote how they were created and installed.

In addition, the DUMP system initialization parameter is extended to support a third option TABLEONLY. The new option allows for all system dumps to be suppressed except for those dump codes that have an entry in the dump table added by CEDA or the SPI. This allows, for example, for an sdump to be taken for a specific dump code that occurs in production while suppressing all other sdumps.
Capability to format recent trace entries for tasks
In addition to auxiliary trace and internal trace, CICS stores data about the most recent trace entries for each task in a separate table. To format the trace for a particular task, the trace selection (TRS) parameter can be used to specify the KE_NUM of the task of interest.

The most recent trace entries contain basic information and are primarily intended for use in diagnosing problems with stalled tasks, where the data concerning the tasks may have been overwritten in the internal trace table.
New replication log record
The replication logging capability is enhanced in support of Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex® (GDPS®) Continuous Availability, to log a REDO record when an application issues an UNLOCK command following a read-update command, or a series of write-massinsert commands. This enables replication products to cater more efficiently for non-record-level sharing (RLS) applications, which, in the absence of browse for update support, issue read-update requests against all records in a file but update few and unlock most records.
New feature toggle to support RLS migration
A new feature toggle com.ibm.cics.rls.delete.ridfld supports RLS migration. When this feature is enabled, a DELETE command with the RIDFLD option can be issued for a single record, without causing an abend with code AFCG.
Ability of CICS-MQ bridge to write SMF type 110 records
A new parameter SMFMQGET is added to the CICS-MQ bridge, CKBR, to instruct the bridge to write SMF type 110 records for the number of MQGET requests it has issued. These records are useful for performance analysis.
Support for COMMAREAs greater than 24K on DPLs
The restriction of limiting commareas to 24K when passed on distributed program link (DPL) calls between CICS regions is removed. Therefore, a maximum-sized 32K commarea can now be passed between CICS regions. This enables full-sized commareas to be used together with a transaction channel and an extended identity context reference (ICRX).

Note: The strategic replacement for commareas is the use of channels and containers.

The CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering delivers the following features, where some features are enhancements that can be applied to current and earlier releases of CICS TS:

Capability	Availability method
New Policy system rule types	CICS TS V5.6 open beta and CICS TS V5.5 with APAR PH07632
New z/OS WLM health policy action	CICS TS V5.6 open beta only
VERIFY TOKEN support for JWT	CICS TS V5.6 open beta only
Support for commareas > 24K on DPLs	Support for commareas > 24K on DPLs	CICS TS V5.6 open beta only
New monitoring and stats for security domain	CICS TS V5.6 open beta only
Improved reporting and action for z/OS short on storage conditions	CICS TS V5.6 open beta only
Resource definition online enhanced to support definition of DUMPCODEs	CICS TS V5.6 open beta only
Capability to format recent trace entries for tasks	CICS TS V5.6 open beta only
New replication log record	CICS TS V5.6 open beta and CICS TS V.5.2, V5.3, V5.4, V5.5 with APAR PH09381 and APAR PH13200
New feature toggle to help with RLS migration	CICS TS V5.6 open beta and CICS TS V5.4, V5.5 with APAR PH07596
GMTRAN option DISCONNECT extended to CESF	CICS TS V5.6 open beta only
Ability of CICS-MQ Bridge to write SMF 110 records	CICS TS V5.6 open beta only

Availability of the CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering

The CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering is available for clients who want to assess its value to their business. It can be downloaded, at no charge, from the IBM CICS open beta offering website.

Clients are invited to contact the CICS Early Programs coordinator, at cicsep@uk.ibm.com, to register an interest in future, managed CICS TS beta programs.

IBM software beta programs overview

Clients can sign up for and acquire early releases of a product for the purposes of testing, before it is made commercially available. Open beta programs do not usually require clients to register before taking part in the program. Typically, product offerings that are provided by a beta program:

Are free of charge.
Are not warranted.
Have no support of any kind.
May not be used for productive purposes.
Contain a disabling device that will prevent it from being used after the test period ends.

Details of the terms and conditions of the software beta program are found in the supplied license files for the offering.

Participants in the beta program gain insight into IBM strategy and direction. They may also afford earlier benefit and payback from new function, and may gain competitive edge and the opportunity for public recognition as a technology leader. Participants are encouraged to provide feedback and articulate their own requirements to IBM, with the potential to help influence and shape future IBM products.

Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act

Both CICS TS V5.5 and the CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering are capable, when used in accordance with associated IBM documentation, of satisfying the applicable requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, provided that any assistive technology used with the product properly interoperates with them. A US Section 508 Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) can be requested.

Hardware and software support services

SmoothStart/installation services

IBM SmoothStart Services and Installation Services are not provided.

Further information about CICS services is available.

Reference information

IBM Software Announcements

For information on the July 2019 update of CICS TS V5.5 and CICS Explorer® V5.5, see Software Announcement 219-103, dated July 2, 2019.

For information on the general availability of CICS TS V5.5, see Software Announcement 218-352, dated October 2, 2018.

For information on the general availability of CICS Explorer V5.5, see Software Announcement 218-430, dated October 2, 2018.

CICS web pages

For up-to-date information on CICS family products, see the CICS home page.

The CICS support web page can be used to search for terms, phrases, error codes, and APAR numbers.

CICS SupportPacs

CICS SupportPacs are available, at no charge, and are designed to complement and extend the capabilities of CICS TS.

Program number

Program number	V.R.M	Program name
5655-Y04	5.5.0	CICS Transaction Server for z/OS
5722-DFJ	5.5.0	CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Value Unit Edition
5722-DFK	1.1.0	CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Value Unit Edition S&S
5655-Y30	5.5.0	CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Developer Trial
5655-Y15	1.1.0	CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Developer Trial S&S
5655-BTA	5.6.0	CICS Transaction Server for z/OS open beta

Business Partner information

If you are a Direct Reseller - System Reseller acquiring products from IBM, you may link directly to BP Attachment for Announcement Letter 219-465 for this announcement. A PartnerWorld ID and password are required (use IBMid).

Technical information

Specified operating environment

Hardware requirements

Both CICS TS V5.5 and the CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering run on any machine that supports the required z/OS operating system. For example:

The minimum required hardware prerequisite for CICS TS V5.5 is zEnterprise 196 or subsequent 64-bit z/Architecture processors.
The minimum required hardware prerequisite for the CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering is zEnterprise 196 or subsequent 64-bit z/Architecture processors.

Software requirements

For CICS TS V5.5, CICS TS Value Unit Edition V5.5, and CICS TS Developer Trial V5.5:

The minimum required level of operating system is IBM z/OS, V2.2 (5650-ZOS).
The minimum required level of Java is IBM 64-bit SDK for z/OS, Java Technology Edition, V8.0.

For the CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering:

The minimum required level of operating system is IBM z/OS, V2.2 (5650-ZOS).
The minimum required level of Java is IBM 64-bit SDK for z/OS, Java Technology Edition, V8.0.

Details of system requirements for CICS products are available at the Software Product Compatibility Reports website.

Compatibility

Application programming summary

The high-level programming languages and compilers that are in service on z/OS and have CICS translator support are detailed in the High-level language support topic in the CICS TS V5.5 product documentation.

Performance considerations

Performance information is available in the online product documentation for CICS TS V5.5, in IBM Knowledge Center.

User group requirements

User requirements for CICS TS can be created, viewed, and voted for in the IBM Request For Enhancement (RFE) community.

Planning information

Packaging

For details of packaging, physical delivery, and electronic delivery, see the CICS TS V5.5 (general availability) Software Announcement 218-352, dated October 2, 2018.

Security, auditability, and control

Both CICS TS V5.5 and the CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering use the security and auditability features of the operating system under which they are running.

The client is responsible for evaluation, selection, and implementation of security features, administrative procedures, and appropriate controls in application systems and communication facilities.

Ordering information

Publications

CICS TS V5.5 product documentation

Product documentation for CICS TS V5.5 is refreshed regularly to reflect feedback from users and includes changes that result from IBM Service and continuous delivery releases. Detailed information is provided in IBM Knowledge Center, in section What documentation is available?

For CICS TS V5.5, both online documentation is available and PDF format documentation is available in IBM Knowledge Center.

Effective October 31, 2019, online documentation will be available for the CICS TS V5.6 open beta offering in IBM Knowledge Center.

Subsequent updates (technical newsletters or revisions between releases) to the publications shipped with the product will be distributed to the user of record for as long as a license for this software remains in effect. A separate publication order or subscription is not needed.

Customized Offerings

Product deliverables are shipped only through CBPDO and ServerPac. These customized offerings are offered for internet delivery from Shopz. For more details on internet delivery, go to the Help section on the Shopz website.

IBM recommends internet delivery. However, if you still require physical media, you can choose DVD.

Many products can be ordered in ServerPac the month following their availability in CBPDO. z/OS can be ordered through CBPDO and ServerPac at general availability. Many products will also be orderable in a Product ServerPac without also having to order the z/OS operating system or subsystem.

Shopz and CFSW will determine the eligibility based on product requisite checking. For more details on the product ServerPac, go to the Help section on the Shopz website.

Production of software product orders will begin on the planned general availability date.

CBPDO shipments will begin one week after general availability.
ServerPac shipments will begin two weeks after general availability.

Terms and conditions

The terms are unaffected by this announcement.

Statement of good security practices

IT system security involves protecting systems and information through prevention, detection, and response to improper access from within and outside your enterprise. Improper access can result in information being altered, destroyed, or misappropriated or can result in misuse of your systems to attack others. Without a comprehensive approach to security, no IT system or product should be considered completely secure and no single product or security measure can be completely effective in preventing improper access. IBM systems and products are designed to be part of a lawful, comprehensive security approach, which will necessarily involve additional operational procedures, and may require other systems, products, or services to be most effective.

Important: IBM does not warrant that any systems, products, or services are immune from, or will make your enterprise immune from, the malicious or illegal conduct of any party.

Order now

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Note: Shipments will begin after the planned availability date.

Trademarks

IBM, CICS, z/OS, zEnterprise, z/Architecture, WebSphere, CICS Explorer, CICSPlex, RACF, Parallel Sysplex and GDPS are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Oracle and Java are trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates in the United States, other countries, or both.

Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

Terms of use

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