Features of CICSPlex SM

CICSPlex® SM incorporates a number of system management functions, including a real-time single-system image, a single point of control, business application management, and operations for the entire CICSplex.

  • A real-time, single-system image (SSI)

    CICSPlex SM provides a real-time, single-system image (SSI) of all CICS® regions and resources that make up the transaction processing environment of your enterprise. CICSPlex SM creates an inventory of the CICS systems and resources and maps the relationships between them; this process is called the CICSPlex SM topology. The operator no longer needs to know the location of a resource before working with it. The SSI is provided by the CICSPlex SM operating function and applies to all CICSPlex SM applications: operations, monitoring, real-time analysis (RTA), and workload management (WLM).

  • A single point of control

    The CICSPlex SM operator can manage all of the enterprise CICS systems and their resources from a single session. That is, CICSPlex SM can provide a single point of control for the enterprise, which in turn means that the CICSPlex SM operator is able to manage large and complex configurations of CICS resources. Furthermore, you can have multiple points of control, so that multiple CICS operators in multiple locations can each have a complete view of the enterprise CICS systems and resources, or a view of those systems and resources that is tailored to their individual requirements. Finally, because the physical location of these points of control is irrelevant, you have total flexibility in appointing control locations.

  • Management of your business applications
    CICSPlex SM enables you to manage your enterprise in terms of your business applications rather than your CICS systems. Business Application Services (BAS) enables you to manage your resources at the application level, by providing:
    • A single point of definition for your resources. All the resources for the CICSplex, and the relationships between them, are held in one place, on the CICSPlex SM data repository, giving a single-system image for the CICSplex. CICSPlex SM produces local and remote instances of a resource from a single definition.
    • Logical scoping, which enables you to link and manage your resources according to their business relationship, rather than by their physical location in a CICS system.
    • Installation of those resources, either automatically when the CICS system is started, or dynamically, as required, into a running CICSplex.

    BAS provides an alternative to resource definition online (RDO). RDO is based on a structure in which definitions are tied to a single group, and groups are processed sequentially from a group list. BAS frees resource definitions from associations with only one group. You can reuse a resource definition and associate it with more than one group as needed. BAS enables you to associate your resources according to their use in your enterprise. You can manage individual resources, rather than a group. For example, you could disable all the files associated with your payroll system, without affecting any other files in the CICSplex.

    See Managing resources using Business Application Services (BAS).

  • Operations for the entire CICSplex

    From any point of control, the operator can take advantage of the SSI to perform tasks, either across the entire CICSplex or across a selected subset. You can display information about the status of one or more instances of a CICS resource in an enterprise, and you can also change the status of the resources with a single entry.

    You use the Web User Interface action buttons to affect the status of the displayed resources. The responses are displayed in panels known as operations views, that can summarize related facts and provide access, using links, to other, related information. The operations views mirror the functionality currently provided for CICS systems. Operators can therefore work in essentially the same way as they are used to, without any change to their basic approach to daily system activities.

    See CICS operations views and The CICSPlex SM Web User Interface for more information about operations views.

  • Management of your workloads

    CICSPlex SMworkload management (WLM) uses the dynamic routing program EYU9XLOP to route eligible work requests from a requesting region to a suitable target region selected at the time the transaction is initiated.

    EYU9XLOP handles the dynamic routing of:
    • Transactions initiated at a terminal
    • Eligible EXEC CICS START requests that are associated with a terminal
    • Eligible EXEC CICS START requests that are not associated with a terminal
    • Dynamic program link (DPL) requests that are received using:
      • The CICS Web Interface
      • The CICS Gateway for Java™
      • External CICS interface (EXCI) client programs
      • Any CICS client workstation products using the External Call Interface (ECI)
      • Open Network Computing (ONC) RPCs
      • Any function that issues an EXEC CICS LINK PROGRAM request
    • Transactions associated with CICS business transaction services (BTS) activities

      CICSPlex SM provides management support for BTS by dynamically routing BTS work across a BTS-set, and by monitoring the management of data in a distributed environment. For full details, see Overview of BTS.

      You do not have to use CICSPlex SM workload management to route BTS activities, but using CICSPlex SM can offer many benefits:
      • Management of distributed data
      • Workload separation and workload routing functions of workload management
      • User replaceable dynamic routing program EYU9XLOP
      • Reduction in link definitions if you also use BAS
      • Cooperation between BAS and BTS in the management of your business environment

    You can write your own program to replace EYU9XLOP, and use it with the CICS-supplied user-replaceable programs DFHDYP and DFHDSRP, to handle your dynamic routing requirements.

    See Managing workloads through CICSPlex SM for more information about dynamic routing and workload management.

  • Automated exception reporting for CICS resources

    CICSPlex SM Real Time Analysis (RTA) function provides automatic, external notification of conditions in which you have expressed an interest. The notification can take the form of a console message, or of a generic alert to NetView®, or both. Real time analysis is not concerned solely with commonly recognized error conditions: you can ask to be notified about any aspect of the status of a resource. With real time analysis you can take actions without having to use a separate automation product.

    The RTA functions of CICSPlex SM are described in greater detail in Monitoring using real-time analysis (RTA). For full details, see Real-time analysis.

  • Monitoring functions for the collection of statistical data for CICS resources

    The CICSPlex SM monitoring functions support the collection of performance-related data, at user-defined intervals, for named resource instances in a set of CICS systems.

    The monitoring functions of CICSPlex SM are described in more detail in Collecting statistics using CICSPlex SM monitoring. For full details, see Real-time analysis.

  • An application programming interface (API)
    CICSPlex SM provides an application programming interface (API) that enables applications to:
    • Access information about CICS and CICSPlex SM resources.
    • Invoke the services of CICSPlex SM.
    A command-level interface is available to programs that are written in these languages:
    • Assembly
    • PL/I
    • COBOL
    • C
    In addition, a REXX runtime interface is available.

    You can use the CICSPlex SM API to write external programs that automate the management of CICSPlex SM and CICS resource definitions. Such programs could be used to integrate the CICSPlex SM system management functions into your enterprise-wide change management process. For example, you could write an API program to coordinate resource definition changes with database or file updates, or the standard life cycle of an application. For a complete description of the API, see CICSPlex SM commands overview.

  • Management of the CICSPlex SM environment
    You manage the CICSPlex SM environment using:
    • CICSPlex SM objects

      To define the configuration of your CICS systems to CICSPlex SM (and to define your BAS, WLM, RTA, and monitoring requirements), you create CICSPlex SM objects, and associate them with each other. For each object, and for each association or link between them, a record is created in a CICSPlex SM data repository. CICSPlex SM objects are described in CICSPlex SM objects.

    • Data repository

      The data repository contains the objects that define the CICSPlex SM components, resources, system management requirements, and the relationships between them. The definitions can be created using the Web User Interface, the CICSPlex SM API, or the batched repository-update facility.

    • The batched repository-update facility

      With the batched repository-update facility you can create and update large numbers of CICSPlex SM and CICS resource definitions by submitting one command that is used as the template for other definitions. The batched repository-update facility is also used for migrating your definitions from one platform to another, and for backing up the data repository. For details, see Administering CICSPlex SM.

  • Management of time-dependent activity
    Much of CICSPlex SM activity is time-dependent. For example, you can specify on your RTA and monitoring definitions when you want the definition to be active. Also, you might want CICS systems running in the same CICSplex but different time zones to run as if they were in the same time zone. You are able to create time-period definitions that control:
    • Exactly when any part of your enterprise is operational, regardless of the local time zone
    • The times you want certain system management functions to be operational

    The international standard for time zones is used, based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). You select the time zone in which you want your CICSplex to run. You can then make adjustments, either for locations that have implemented times that are not different from GMT by 60 minute multiples, and for daylight saving.

    Details of time-period definition are in Administering CICSPlex SM.