Automating the process of defining CICS application resources with CICS Transaction Server resource builder

CICS® Transaction Server resource builder is a DevOps utility, complementary to the CSD update batch utility program DFHCSDUP, that provides a way to automate the creation and maintenance of CICS application resource definitions by using a configuration-as-code approach. With CICS TS resource builder, system programmers can create resource models in YAML that enforce best practices and organization standards, for application developers to use in their IDEs to create valid, compliant application resource definitions, while application developers can enjoy a guided and controlled experience for defining CICS resources in which they can have the confidence to be standards-compliant and pre-approved. This approach means that CICS application resources are stored with the application code.

Overview of automated resource definition workflow

Based on the resource model schema supplied by CICS TS resource builder, system programmers create a resource model in YAML that describes which resources and attributes developers are allowed to specify and how to specify them (for example, by enforcing naming conventions on particular attributes). System programmers provide application developers with these resource standards by generating a resource definition schema from the resource models, which is used by developers in their IDEs to create valid application resource definitions in YAML. Resource model artifacts can be stored in source control management (SCM) for version control and automation within, for example, a DevOps pipeline.

Application programmers configure their IDEs to use the resource definition schema, and then create or update application resource definitions in YAML, based on the schema.

CICS TS resource builder builds the application resource definitions that are in YAML into a DFHCSDUP commands file that can then be consumed by the CSD update batch utility program DFHCSDUP, which runs to update the CICS system definitions data set (CSD) for a CICS region.

Figure 1 illustrates the use of CICS TS resource builder for automating the process of defining application resources in a DevOps pipeline.

Figure 1. Automated application resource definition workflow
This diagram illustrates how YAML and schema files are used to create a DFHSCSDUP commands file by using CICS TS resource builder. The DFHSCSDUP commands file is consumed by the DFHCSDUP utility to update the CSD for a CICS region.

In addition, CICS TS resource builder provides an import capability that allows system programmers to identify the standards used for resource definitions in an existing CSD and migrate these standards into CICS TS resource builder resource models and resource definitions. This capability also makes it possible to apply existing resource definition standards to additional applications. For simplicity, this capability is omitted in Figure 1.

For more information about CICS TS resource builder, see the CICS TS resource builder product documentation.

Supported resource types

CICS TS resource builder supports the following resource types:

A-J J-P S-W
  • ATOMSERVICE
  • BUNDLE
  • CONNECTION
  • DB2CONN
  • DB2ENTRY
  • DB2TRAN
  • DOCTEMPLATE
  • DUMPCODE
  • ENQMODEL
  • FILE
  • IPCONN
  • JOURNALMODEL
  • JVMSERVER
  • LIBRARY
  • LSRPOOL
  • MAPSET
  • MQCONN
  • MQMONITOR
  • PARTITIONSET
  • PARTNER
  • PIPELINE
  • PROCESSTYPE
  • PROFILE
  • PROGRAM
  • SESSIONS
  • TCPIPSERVICE
  • TDQUEUE
  • TERMINAL
  • TRANCLASS
  • TRANSACTION
  • TSMODEL
  • TYPETERM
  • URIMAP
  • WEBSERVICE