CICS Connection policy (CICSConnection)

Attach a CICS Connection policy to one or more CICSRequest nodes in a message flow to control connection details at run time.

You use the CICSRequest node in a message flow to call CICS® Transaction Server for z/OS® programs over TCP/IP-based IP InterCommunications (IPIC) protocol. You can use a CICS Connection policy that the CICSRequest node can refer to at run time for connection information.

To attach a CICS Connection policy to a CICSRequest node, set the CICS server property of the CICSRequest node to the name of the policy in the format {policyProjectName}:policyName. You must deploy this policy before the associated message flow is started.

If you redeploy a CICSConnection policy, all message flows that are using the policy will be stopped and restarted.

The properties of this policy are described in the following table.

Table 1. Properties of the CICS Connection policy
Property Property name in .policyxml file Value
CICS server cicsServer This property specifies the value that is used by the CICSRequest node to connect to CICS Transaction Server for z/OS. Specify one of the following connection methods:
A direct connection to CICS (two-tier)
If you are connecting directly from IBM® App Connect Enterprise to CICS, set this property to the URL of the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS region where the program exists. The URL includes a protocol, host name, and port number, which is the minimum information you need to connect to the CICS target region.
The URL must be in the format protocol://hostname:port where:
  • protocol can be TCP or SSL.
  • hostname is the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) TCP/IP address or DNS-resolvable host name of the CICS host.
  • port is the port number of the TCPIPSERVICE listener in CICS that is listening for IPIC protocol requests over TCP/IP or SSL protocol. You can enter an integer in the range 1 - 65535.
For example:
tcp://mycicsregion.com:12345

ssl://mycicsregion.com:56789
A connection to CICS through a CICS Transaction Gateway (three-tier)
If you connect to CICS through a Transaction Gateway (CICS TG), you must meet the following criteria:
  • The CICS Transaction Gateway URL property must contain the URL for the CICS TG to use for the connection.
  • The CICS server property must contain the CICS server definition that you specify in the CICS TG.INI initialization file. For example, the property can specify the particular CICS region that you want the transaction gateway to connect to.

Value type: String
CICS Transaction Gateway URL gatewayURL This property specifies the URL that is used to connect to CICS Transaction Gateway. If this property is specified, the CICS server property must contain the CICS server definition that you specify in the CICS TG.INI initialization file.
Use this property to specify a protocol, host name, and port number, which is the minimum information you need to connect to CICS TG. The URL must be in the format protocol://hostname:port where:
  • protocol can be TCP or SSL.
  • hostname is the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) TCP/IP address or DNS-resolvable host name of the CICS TG host.
  • port is the port number of the TCP/IP or SSL protocol listener for the gateway daemon of CICS TG. You can enter an integer in the range 1 - 65535.
For example:
tcp://mycicstransactiongateway.com:12345
ssl://mycicstransactiongateway.com:56789

If you are using SSL, the integration node key ring must trust the CICS TG middle tier. You can obtain the host name and port number from the CICS TG.INI initialization file.

The default value for this property is local:, which indicates a direct two-tier connection to CICS.

Value type: String
CICS APPLID clientApplid This property specifies the application ID by which IBM App Connect Enterprise is known to the CICS region. This ID is not the application ID of the CICS region. You can enter a maximum of 8 characters.

Value type: String
CICS APPLID qualifier clientQualifier This property specifies the application ID qualifier by which IBM App Connect Enterprise is known to the CICS region. You can enter a maximum of 8 characters.

Value type: String
Connection timeout (seconds) connectionTimeoutSecs This property specifies the timeout value that is used by the CICSRequest node to set the expiry time in seconds for IBM App Connect Enterprise to establish a connection to the CICS region. The default value for this property is 30, indicating that the CICSRequest node waits for 30 seconds. You can enter an integer in the range 0 - 2147483, where 0 indicates that no timeout is applied.

Value type: Integer
Request timeout (seconds) requestTimeoutSecs This property specifies the timeout value that is used by the CICSRequest node to set the expiry time in seconds for the CICS program to respond. The default value for this property is 120, indicating that the CICSRequest node waits for 120 seconds. This period does not include the connection time period. You can enter an integer in the range 0 - 2147483, where 0 indicates that no timeout is applied.

Value type: Integer
Security identity (DSN) securityIdentity This property specifies the name of the security identity object that contains the user ID and password to be used to authenticate the connection to CICS.

Value type: String
SSL keystore location sslKeystoreLocation This property specifies the fully-qualified path to the location of the keystore that is used when using an SSL connection. If this value is not specified, the keystore that is configured for the integration server will be used. The CICSRequest node uses this as the store for the private and public certificates used to secure the connection to CICS.
SSL keystore security identity sslKeystoreSecurityIdentity This property specifies the security identity to be used for accessing the keystore.
Integration server used for XA recovery egForXARecovery In a globally coordinated transaction, this property specifies the name of the integration server that establishes a connection to CICS for XA recovery. If XA is being used, only the specified integration server can use the policy.

If you set this property, you must also set the CICS APPLID and CICS APPLID qualifier properties.

This property is not supported on z/OS.

Value type: String