Setting up temporary storage data sets

Each CICS® region uses an area of 64-bit (above the bar) or 31-bit (above the line) storage in the CICS region as main temporary storage. You can define some auxiliary temporary storage for the CICS region in a nonindexed VSAM data set. Applications in a CICS region can also use shared temporary storage pools in a z/OS® coupling facility.

About this task

For an overview of the different temporary storage locations and the features available for temporary storage queues in each location, see CICS temporary storage: overview.

Compared to main temporary storage, auxiliary temporary storage is typically used by applications that store data for longer periods, or access the data less frequently. Temporary storage queues in auxiliary storage can also be defined as recoverable, which enables you to maintain data from one CICS run to the next. Temporary storage queues in main storage cannot be defined as recoverable.

Shared temporary storage pools in a coupling facility require temporary storage servers, typically one server in each z/OS image in the sysplex. However, they do not use any storage in the CICS region. Access to temporary storage queues in shared temporary storage pools is quicker than access to temporary storage queues held by a remote CICS region (queue-owning region). Shared temporary storage pools do not cause inter-transaction affinities. For more information, see Defining temporary storage pools for temporary storage data sharing.