Workload management with CICS Explorer

CICS Explorer® presents a new way of managing your CICSPlex® SM workloads. There is no change to the way the CICSPlex SM workload management operates, but by using CICS Explorer you can get a simplified and consolidated view of the CICSPlex SM elements that control where, and how, the work is distributed in a workload.

CICS Explorer introduces the term Routing rule. Routing rules take two forms: default and specific:

For every workload, there is a single default routing rule. The default routing rule equates to the Workload Specification (WLMSPEC), and controls the routing behavior for all transactions that are not covered by specific routing rules.
Specific routing rules are a collection of all the definitional resources; WLMDEF, TRANGRP, and DTRINGRP, that together define the criteria by which specific transactions are selected and routed, or separated in the target regions.

The rules define which transactions are selected, and under what criteria, where they can potentially be routed (targets), and the criteria for deciding on the specific target that is chosen for each individual routing decision. The rules can be created and changed in the Workload editor. The editor brings together all aspects of a workload definition in one place.

The Workload Management (WLM) views and editors, in the SM Administration perspective, provide operational and definitional information about your workloads:

The Operation views, which open from the CICS Explorer menu Operations > WLM, show operational information for your workloads.
The Workload Specifications view, which opens from the CICS Explorer menu Definitions > WLM, shows details of your workload specifications.
The Workload editor, which opens when you open a workload specification or an inactive workload, is used to add, or change the definitional details of a workload.
The Default routing editor, which opens when you open an active workload or a default routing resource, shows information about the default targets and transactions in the workload. The default routing criteria is part of the workload specification (WLMSPEC), and defines the behavior for every transaction that is not defined in another rule.
The Routing rule editor, which opens when you open a routing rule resource, shows information about the targets, transactions, and affinities for the routing rule in the workload.

The CICSplex Explorer view contains a Workload Management section that gives a view of both the active and inactive workloads, and their resources.

A screen capture of the CICSplex Explorer view that shows the expanded Workload Management section in the CICSplex. One of the workloads is expanded to show the workload resources.

In the CICSplex Explorer view, you can use the right-click menu for a workload or a resource, and perform certain actions. The actions on the menu depend on the workload, or resource that is selected. The following actions are available:

Active workload

Click Open Active Workload to open the Default routing editor.
Click Open workload specification to open the Workload Specification editor.

Inactive workload

Click Open Workload Specification to open the Workload editor.
Click New from to create a workload specification with the same default routing as the source workload.
Click Delete to delete the workload specification.

Default routing or targets

Click Open Active Workload to open the Default routing editor.

Routing rule or targets

Click Open Active Workload to open the Routing Rule editor.
Click Discard to delete the routing rule.
Click Activate or Quiesce (only available for a target region) to change the state of a target.

For more information about workload management, see the related links.