Deploying a CICS bundle project from CICS Explorer

You can deploy an application as a CICS® bundle project from CICS Explorer® and use a BUNDLE resource to create resources dynamically for you. The BUNDLE resource represents the application, so you can also manage its availability in CICS by enabling and disabling the BUNDLE resource.

About this task

A bundle project is a collection of CICS resources, artifacts, references, and a manifest that you can deploy into a CICS region to represent all or part of an application. The manifest is a file that describes the contents of the bundle, including any prerequisite system resources for the application. CICS does not dynamically create these system resources but can check that they are present in the CICS region. This separation of resources means that you can install the same application into multiple CICS regions without repackaging or redeploying the bundle.

When you have created a CICS bundle project in CICS Explorer, you must export it to a CICS region. You can either export the bundle project as a .zip file to the local file system, transfer the archive file to z/OS® UNIX, and extract it into a directory, or you can export the project directly to z/OS UNIX. You must also define and enable a BUNDLE resource for the bundle project. CICS will then create the bundle project application resources dynamically for you.

Note: You can only export a bundle directly to a z/OS UNIX file system if your network is using Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). The procedure does not work for IPv6 networks. The port can be secured to accept SSL traffic; if this is done, CICS Explorer detects this and switches to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) mode so that no data flows unencrypted. If an SSL connection cannot be established, basic authentication is used.

Procedure

  1. Export your bundle project from CICS Explorer using one of the following methods.
    • Exporting to your local file system:
      1. Right-click your CICS bundle project in the Project Explorer view and select Export. The Export window opens.
      2. Click Archive File.
      3. Click Next.
      4. Make sure that all the files in the project are selected. Enter a file name in the To archive file field, and select Save in .zip format.
      5. Click Finish.
    • Exporting directly to a z/OS UNIX file system:
      1. Right-click your CICS bundle project in the Project Explorer view and select Export to z/OS UNIX File System. The Export to z/OS UNIX File System window opens. The Bundle project field contains the name of your bundle project. Alternatively, you can type the name of a bundle project in the field or click Browse.
      2. In the Connection field, either select an existing connection to an FTP port by clicking the twistie, or click the connection text hyperlink to define a new connection of type z/OS FTP.
      3. In the Directory field, specify the name of a z/OS UNIX file system directory as a target for the transfer. When you type the name of a directory folder, the directory tree is refreshed and this folder is shown as the root. If you double-click a folder, this folder becomes the root of the tree. Alternatively, you can select from the tree and navigate to the directory.
      4. Select the Delete existing z/OS Unix Bundle Folder check box to remove the specified folder and all the child folders and files in the target z/OS UNIX file system directory before the file transfer. If you do not select the check box and a folder by that name exists, the export does not take place.
      5. Click Finish.
  2. Define and enable a BUNDLE resource for the application bundle.
    See BUNDLE attributes for details of the attributes to specify.
    CICS reads the manifest in the bundle directory and dynamically creates the application resources. It also checks that any required references, for example to programs or files, outside the application are present in the CICS region, so that the application can run successfully.

Results

A bundle project is exported to z/OS UNIX and a BUNDLE resource for the bundle project is defined and enabled.

What to do next

You can manage bundle project application availability in CICS by enabling and disabling the BUNDLE resource.