IBM CICS Configuration Manager for z/OS V1.2 delivers new resource definition management facilities for improved CICS administration
IBM United States Software Announcement 206-097May 2, 2006
 ENUS206-097.PDF (63KB)
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At a glance
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| At a glance |
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CICS Configuration Manager for z/OS (CICS CM)
- Comprehensive reporting capabilities
- Optional change management control facilities
New in V1.2
- Support for migrating resource definitions between partitioned environments
- Facilities to integrate with current change management solutions
- Data take-up utility to speed up the initial deployment
- Usability enhancements for improved navigation
- Reporting enhancements for easier analysis
For ordering, contact:
Your IBM representative, an IBM Business Partner, or IBM Americas Call Centers at
800-IBM-CALL
(Reference: LE001).
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| Overview |
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CICS® Configuration Manager for z/OS® (CICS CM), a tool for administering and maintaining CICS resource definitions, also provides comprehensive reporting and optional change management control facilities. It lets you:
- Manipulate definitions seamlessly across CICS system definition (CSD) files and CICSPlex® System Manager data repositories
- Edit definitions whether the CICS regions that use them are active or inactive
- Use the audit trail to generate reports and back out changes to any previous version of the definitions
- Create reports to analyze resource definition status, relationships, and history
- Take advantage of the optional change control capability where approval is required from authorized users before migrating definitions
- Use an XML SOAP API and batch facility for scripting and integration with your existing applications
- Export and import utility for migrating definitions between partitioned environments
- Enhanced search and display capabilities available throughout the product
- Data take-up utility to reduce time to deployment of CICS CM V1.2
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User exits to enable improved process coordination and efficiency, facilitating:
- Integration with current change management solutions
- Enforcement and validation of site-based standards reducing manual errors
- Automatic notification to users when process points are reached
- Creation of events for integration with existing or new system management processes
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| Key prerequisites |
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- z/OS V1.4, or later
- CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V2.2, or later
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| Planned availability date |
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June 9, 2006
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| Description |
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CICS CM is a tool for administering and maintaining CICS resource definitions. It also provides comprehensive reporting and optional change management control facilities. Using CICS CM, you can define and maintain CICS CSD and/or CICSPlex System Manager (CICSPlex SM) Business Application Services (BAS) definitions, and can then easily promote individual or sets of definitions from one CICS or CICSPlex SM environment to another.
You can create, edit, compare, copy, move, and remove definitions individually, or in groups. Definitions can be edited regardless of whether the CICS regions that use them are active or inactive. The powerful ability of CICS CM to migrate multiple definitions in a single step also provides the user with the option to automatically transform specific attributes of the definitions to match the target environment. An audit trail of changed resources, dates, and times makes it possible for changes to be backed out to any previous version of the definitions, if required.
CICS CM gives you a single point of control from which you can transparently manipulate definitions across CSD files and CICSPlex SM data repositories. This capability provides an easy migration path for the enterprises planning to use the business application services component of CICSPlex SM.
CICS CM change control capability is optional. When activated, the appropriate approvals must be received before a change package can be migrated to the selected environments. CICS CM also has comprehensive reporting capabilities to help you understand your resource definitions and can generate reports suitable for analyzing the status of resource definitions, relationships and histories, across any combination of CSD files and data repositories.
You can access all functions of CICS CM from an easy-to-use menu driven Time Sharing Option (TSO) Interactive System Programming Facility (ISPF) interface which enables you to manage resource definitions effectively, hiding the complexities of your CICS topology and helping to avoid errors. In addition to the TSO end user interface, the product has a batch interface and a SOAP XML based API. This gives you the option of incorporating definition management within your automated processes. For further details of this offering, refer to Software Announcement 205-044 , dated February 22, 2005.
CICS resource definition management facilities provided by CICS CM can help you to:
- Improve productivity of day-to-day CICS system management and administration
- Reduce downtime caused by administrative errors
- Improve change control and auditability to simplify the management of new application development through test and deployment
- Simplify migration between releases of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS)
CICS CM V1.2 delivers a wide range of important new capabilities
CICS CM has been enhanced by the introduction of key new function, and improved usability, performance, reporting, and integration.
Definition management for partitioned sites
An export and import utility is provided to let you transfer resource definitions between partitioned environments in a controlled manner. Data may be selectively chosen for export from CICS CM V1.2 managed CSD files or CICSPlex SM contexts. The import and export facility will process an import or export file produced by CICS CM, DFHCSDUP or CICSPlex SM DUMP.
While CICS CM V1.1 allows you to manage definitions within your business enterprise, V1.2 extends this, giving you the capability to transfer definitions between physically partitioned environments. Therefore, you can take advantage of CICS CM capabilities when your environments are intentionally partitioned to protect against inadvertent change, for example test and production environments.
Integration with current change management solutions
In CICS CM V1.1, the SOAP XML-based API allows some integration with change management tools. The addition of server user exit points in V1.2 provides the facility for complete integration, so you can now use events in CICS CM V1.2 to drive corresponding activity in your change management tools. Thus, you can synchronize updates in your change management tools (for example, IBM Software Configuration and Library Manager (SCLM) for z/OS Plus), or your in-house change control solution with specific events in CICS CM.
Improved process coordination and efficiency
In addition, server user exits can facilitate site-based standards enforcement and validation, allowing specific naming conventions and standards for the various environments to be maintained.
For example
- All program names could be required to have the following structure:
lllaaann -- where
lll = Line of Business,
aaa = application
nn is a numeric value
- All programs might be written in COBOL.
Creation of events for integration with existing or new system management processes
Exits employed during ready, approve, and migrate processing can generate events to which other associated processes can react. This could be used
- To ensure that the necessary security updates have been made for transaction changes
- To ensure that datasets have been allocated for new TCP/IP files
Reduced time to tool deployment
In CICS CM V1.2, a Data Takeup utility is provided in the form of a batch program for the initial take up of CICS CSD and CICSPlex SM context data. This program simplifies the input of CICS configuration data, thus minimizing your time to deployment of CICS CM.
Reporting enhancements
The Search function (known as the Scan function in V1.1) is enhanced to support and and or conditions. V1.1 lets you identify resource definitions with certain attribute values. These criteria are limited to the and condition for the attribute values. For example: Identify all program definitions that are language (COBOL) and name (A*). With the addition of or logic, you can now combine criteria with or logic. For example: identify all program definitions that are language (COBOL) or name(A*). Advanced search and display capabilities are now available throughout the product and there is also the option to search within results.
CICS CM V1.2 provides a new facility to report to batch. In addition to the comprehensive online reporting facilities provided in V1.1, CICS CM V1.2 supports offline reports, enabling detailed analysis, and improved auditability.
Usability enhancements
- Improved navigation through ISPF dialogues
- User-specified defaults and validation
- Improved user diagnostics
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Additional flexibility with object filtering
- Date/time range filtering
- Name and group filters
- Support for full wild card generic searches
Performance enhancements
Support is provided for processing multiple resources in a single API call, thus minimizing TCP/IP message sending delays and overhead.
Additional enhancements
- A journal archive and offload utility will be delivered via the service channel after general availability. This utility allows selective offload, deletion, or restoration of CICS CM journal records.
- The comparison facilities in CICS CM V1.1 allow you to compare two resources and highlight the differences. In V1.2 this function is extended to allow comparison of groups and lists. You can now select the criteria for highlighting the differences.
- API commands Alter and Rename are introduced for consistency with existing interfaces, reducing the learning curve for CICS CM users. This capability enables modification of attributes for multiple resource definitions by using a single command and provides consistency with CEDA.
- Support for symbolic IP addresses is provided, for traffic that does not pass through a proxy server.
Accessibility by people with disabilities
Features of CICS CM that support use by people with disabilities include:
- The ability to use assistive technologies such as screen readers and screen magnifier software
- Facilities to customize display attributes such as color, contrast, and font size
- Capability of operating using only the keyboard
The product documentation, the User's Guide , is delivered in softcopy (PDF) format. It will also be provided (in HTML format) as part of the accessible CICS TS V3.1 Information Center at its next update.
A U.S. Section 508 Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) containing details on the products accessibility compliance can be requested via the IBM Web site
Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act
CICS CM is capable as of June 9, 2006, 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 it.
Value Unit-based pricing
Value Unit pricing for eligible IBM 
zSeries® IBM International Program License Agreement (IPLA) IPLA programs enables a
lower cost of incremental growth and enterprise aggregation. Each zSeries IPLA product with Value
Unit pricing has a single price per Value Unit and a conversion matrix, called Value Unit Exhibit,
for converting from some designated measurement to Value Units. Most commonly Millions of Service
Units (MSUs) is the measurement designated by IBM to be converted to Value Units. Some other
measurements are engines or messages. Since MSUs are the most common measurement, that measurement
will be used for the remainder of this description.
Value Unit pricing offers price benefits for customers. For each zSeries IPLA program with Value Unit pricing, the quantity of that program needed to satisfy applicable IBM terms and conditions is referred to as the "required license capacity." Each of the various Value Unit Exhibits stipulate that the larger your required license capacity, the fewer Value Units per MSU you will need. Value Unit Exhibits are uniquely identified by a three-digit code and referred to using the nomenclature VUExxx, where xxx is the three-digit code.
Subsequent acquisitions of Value Unit priced programs offers additional price benefits for customers. The quantity of each zSeries IPLA program that you have acquired is referred to as "entitled license capacity." If you wish to grow your entitled license capacity for a zSeries IPLA program, the calculation to determine additional needed Value Units is based upon the number of Value Units already acquired.
For each zSeries IPLA program with Value Unit Pricing, you should:
- Determine the required license capacity, in MSUs
- Aggregate the MSUs across the enterprise
- Convert the total MSUs to Value Units, using the applicable Value Unit Exhibit, and
- Multiply the price per Value Unit by the total number of Value Units to determine the total cost.
To simplify conversion from the designated measurement to Value Units or vice-versa, use the Value Unit Converter Tool. For additional information or to obtain a copy of the Value Unit Converter Tool, visit the Value Unit Converter Tool Web site
Note that Value Units of a given product cannot be exchanged, interchanged, or aggregated with Value Units of another product.
To determine the required license capacity for the zSeries IPLA program
you selected, refer to the
Terms and conditions
section.
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| Product positioning |
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Organizations that run CICS systems constantly experience business pressure to improve CICS platform efficiency, maximize system availability, and make the most of their CICS skills as well as plan for a Web services implementation. IBM offers a suite of CICS tools which can help you:
- Support application transformation and CICS technology-based SOA implementations
- Enable easier CICS version-to-version migration, including migrations from CICS TS V1.3, and especially to CICS TS V3.1
- Reduce complexity and cost of CICS system and application management
- Improve CICS application and data availability
- Comply with regulations like the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act
CICS CM is one of the tools in this comprehensive portfolio, enabling tighter and more transparent control over CICS administration, which is critical for smooth operation of CICS and collaboration between the various roles involved in making and tracking changes. Accurate and up-to-date CICS resource definitions are essential to maintain the high availability expected of your CICS environment. Resource definitions need to be updated frequently, for example to support application changes or migration to a new version of CICS. This can be a complex task, increasingly so if the topology of the CICS regions of your systems is large and complex.
CICS CM simplifies CICS administration, and helps improve availability and reduce errors. CICS CM helps improve the productivity of your IT staff, including managers, system programmers, and application developers, by:
- Helping to optimize day-to-day CICS system management and administration
- Simplifying resource-definition processes for new application development and deployment and integration with the change management products
- Improving change control and auditability
Business Partner information
If you are a Direct Reseller - System Reseller acquiring products from IBM, you may link directly to Business Partner information for this announcement. A PartnerWorld ID and password are required (use IBM ID).
BP Attachment for Announcement Letter 206-097
Trademarks
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| Offering Information |
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Product information is available via the Offering Information Web site
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| Publications |
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The program directory is shipped in hardcopy with the product:
Form
Title number
CICS(R) Configuration Manager for z/OS(R) V1.2: GI10-2588
Program Directory
Information on this product is available in:
Form
Title number
CICS Configuration Manager for z/OS V1.2: GC34-6777
User's Guide
This publication will be available June 9, 2006, in PDF format for download from the IBM Publications Center Web site at
It will also be provided, at a later date, in HTML format in an update to
the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V3.1 Information Center.
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| Technical information |
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Hardware requirements
CICS CM runs on any S/390® or IBM zSeries® machine on which the applicable operating system and software will run.
Software requirements
CICS Configuration Manager for z/OS V1.2 requires:
- z/OS (5694-A01) V1.4, or later
- CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V2.2 or V2.3 (5697-E93), or CICS TS for z/OS V3.1 (5655-M15)
Planning information
Packaging: CICS CM is shipped via Customized Offerings, on 3480 1/2-inch tape cartridge.
Also shipped are:
- IPLA in multilanguage booklet (Z125-3301)
- License Information in multilanguage booklet (GC34-6652)
- Proof of Entitlement (PoE)
- Program Directory in hardcopy (GI10-2588)
Security, auditability, and control
CICS CM uses the security and auditability features of the operating system under which it is running. Clients can use any Security Authorization Facility (SAF)-compliant security product, such as RACF®.
The customer is responsible for evaluation, selection, and implementation of security features,
administrative procedures, and appropriate controls in application systems and communication
facilities.
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| Ordering information |
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Ordering z/OS through the Internet
ShopzSeries provides an easy way to plan and order your z/OS ServerPac or CBPDO. It will analyze your current installation, determine the correct product migration, and present your new configuration based on z/OS. Additional products can also be added to your order (including determination of whether all product requisites are satisfied). ShopzSeries is available in the U.S. and several countries in Europe. In countries where ShopzSeries is not available yet, contact your IBM representative (or IBM Business Partner) to handle your order via the traditional IBM ordering process. For more details and availability, visit the ShopzSeries Web site at
There is no new ordering information for CICS Configuration Manager for z/OS V1.2. Refer to Software Announcement 205-044 , dated February 22, 2005.
Customized Offerings
Product media is shipped only via Customized Offerings (for example, CBPDO, ServerPac,
SystemPac®). Non-customized items (CDs, diskettes, source media, media kits) will continue to be
shipped via the stand-alone product.
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| Terms and conditions |
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Licensing: IPLA and License Information document. PoE are required for all authorized use.
These products are licensed under the IPLA, and the associated Agreement for Acquisition of Software Maintenance, which provides for support with ongoing access to releases and versions of the program. These programs have a one-time license charge for use of the program and an annual renewable charge for the enhanced support that includes telephone assistance (voice support for defects during normal business hours) as well as access to updates, releases, and versions of the program as long as support is in effect.
S/390 and zSeries IBM Operational Support Services — SoftwareXcel is an option for those clients who want added services.
Limited warranty applies: Yes
Warranty: This program includes a warranty for one year from acquisition from IBM or an authorized IBM Business Partner. For one year from acquisition of the program, this warranty provides the customer with access to databases containing program information and FAQs, including any known fixes to defects, which the customer can download or otherwise obtain and install.
Program support: Enhanced Support, called Subscription and Support, includes telephone assistance (voice support for defects during normal business hours) as well as access to updates, releases, and versions of the program as long as support is in effect. The customer will be notified of discontinuance of support with 12 months' notice.
Money-back guarantee: If for any reason you are dissatisfied with the program and you are the original licensee, return it within 30 days from the invoice date, to the party (either IBM or its reseller) from whom you acquired it, for a refund. For clarification, note that for programs acquired under any of IBM's On/Off Capacity on Demand (On/Off CoD) software offerings, this term does not apply since these offerings apply to programs already acquired and in use by the customer.
Copy and use on home/portable computer: No
Volume orders (IVO): No
Passport Advantage® applies: No
Software Maintenance applies: No
For Operating System software, the revised IBM Operational Support Services — SoftwareXcel offering will provide support for those operating systems and associated products that are not available with the newly announced Software Maintenance offering. This will ensure total support coverage for your enterprise needs, including IBM and selected non-IBM products. For complete lists of products supported under both the current and revised SoftwareXcel offering, visit
For additional information on the revised IBM Operational Support Services, refer to Services Announcement 601-023 , dated July 10, 2001.
IBM operational support services — SoftwareXcel: Yes
iSeries™ Software Maintenance applies: No
Variable charges apply: No
Educational allowance available:
Yes, 15% education allowance applies to qualified education institution customers.
Sub-capacity terms and conditions
For each zSeries IPLA program with Value Unit pricing, the quantity of that program needed to satisfy applicable IBM terms and conditions is referred to as the "required license capacity." Your required license capacity is based upon the following factors:
- zSeries IPLA program you select
- Applicable Value Unit Exhibit
- Applicable Terms
- Whether your current mainframes are full-capacity or sub-capacity
For more information on the Value Unit Exhibit for the zSeries IPLA program you selected, refer to the Ordering information section.
Program Parent
number Program name Terms products
5697-I78 CICS Configuration Reference-based 5697-E93
Manager for z/OS 5655-M15
V1.2
Full-capacity Mainframes: In cases where full-capacity is applicable, the following terms apply:
For more information on mainframe MSU rated capacities, visit the Web site
Reference-based: The required license capacity of a zSeries IPLA program with these terms equals the license capacity of the applicable monthly license charge (MLC) program. This MLC program is called the "parent" program.
Sub-capacity mainframes: In cases where sub-capacity is applicable, the following terms apply:
Reference-based: The required license capacity of a zSeries IPLA program with these terms equals the license capacity of the applicable MLC program. This MLC program is called the "parent" program.
For more information on mainframe MSU rated capacities, refer to The System/370™, System/390®, and zSeries Machine Exhibit (Z125-3901) or visit the "Mainframes" section of the zSeries Exhibits Web site
For more information on sub-capacity zSeries IPLA terms and conditions, refer to Software Announcement 204-184 , dated August 10, 2004.
Additional information for products with reference-based terms: zSeries IPLA sub-capacity programs with reference-based terms add value to the parent program across the environment, regardless of where in environment the zSeries IPLA program executes.
An environment is defined as either a single/stand-alone machine or a qualified Parallel Sysplex®. Customers may have one or more different environments across their enterprise. To determine the required license capacity for each zSeries IPLA program with referenced-based terms, each environment should be assessed separately.
When a zSeries IPLA sub-capacity program with reference-based terms is used in a qualified Parallel Sysplex environment the required license capacity of the zSeries IPLA program must equal with the license capacity of the parent program across the Parallel Sysplex. Qualified Parallel Sysplex refers to one:
- That meets the criteria defined in Hardware Announcement 198-001 , dated January 13, 1998.
- Where MLC pricing is aggregated across the Sysplex.
Sub-Capacity Eligibility: To be eligible for sub-capacity charging on select zSeries IPLA programs, you must first implement and comply with all terms of either sub-capacity Workload License Charges (WLC) or sub-capacity Entry Workload License Charges (EWLC). To implement sub-capacity WLC or EWLC, a machine must be zSeries (or equivalent). On that machine:
- All instances of the OS/390® operating system must be migrated to the z/OS (or z/OS.e) operating systems
- Any licenses for the OS/390 operating system must be discontinued
- All instances of the z/OS operating (or z/OS.e) systems must be running in z/Architecture™ (64-bit) mode
For that machine, you must create and submit a Sub-Capacity Report to IBM each month. Sub-Capacity Reports must be generated using the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool (SCRT). For additional information or to obtain a copy of SCRT, visit the zSeries Software Pricing Web site
You must comply with all of the terms of the WLC or EWLC offering, whichever is applicable:
- The complete terms and conditions of sub-capacity WLC are defined in the IBM Customer Agreement — Attachment for zSeries Workload License Charges (Z125-6516).
- The complete terms and conditions for sub-capacity EWLC are defined in the IBM Customer Agreement — Attachment for IBM eServer zSeries 890 and 800 License Charges (Z125-6587).
Additionally, you must sign and comply with the terms and conditions specified in the amendment to the IPLA contract — "Amendment for IBM System z9™ and eServer zSeries Programs Sub-Capacity Pricing (Z125-6929)." Once the amendment is signed, the terms in the amendment replace any and all previous zSeries IPLA sub-capacity terms and conditions.
Sub-capacity utilization determination
Sub-capacity utilization is determined based on the utilization of a sub-capacity eligible reference product and machine.
On/Off Capacity on Demand
To be eligible for On/Off Capacity on Demand pricing, customers must be enabled for temporary
capacity on the corresponding hardware, and the required contract — Z125-6611, Attachment for
Customer Initiated Upgrade and IBM eServer On/Off Capacity on Demand — Software — must be signed
prior to use.
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| Prices |
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There are no new charges for CICS Configuration Manager for z/OS V1.2.
IBM Global Financing
IBM Global Financing offers competitive financing to credit-qualified customers to assist them in acquiring IT solutions. Offerings include financing for IT acquisition, including hardware, software, and services, both from IBM and other manufacturers or vendors. Offerings (for all customer segments: small, medium, and large enterprise), rates, terms, and availability can vary by country. Contact your local IBM Global Financing organization or visit
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| Order now |
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To order, contact the Americas Call Centers, your local IBM representative, or your IBM Business Partner.
To identify your local IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, call 800-IBM-4YOU (426-4968).
Phone: 800-IBM-CALL (426-2255)
Fax: 800-2IBM-FAX (242-6329)
Internet: callserv@ca.ibm.com
Mail: IBM Americas Call Centers
Dept. Teleweb Customer Support, 9th floor
105 Moatfield Drive
North York, Ontario
Canada M3B 3R1
Reference: LE001
The Americas Call Centers, our national direct marketing organization, can add your name to the mailing list for catalogs of IBM products.
Note: Shipments will begin after the planned availability date.
Trademarks
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