CICS TS V5.3 performance report

CICS® TS for z/OS®, Version 5.3 introduces a significant number of performance improvements. The CICS TS 5.3 performance report covers the following topics:

  • Key performance benchmarks that are presented as a comparison against CICS TS 5.2.
  • An outline of improvements made regarding the threadsafe characteristics of the CICS run time.
  • Details of the changes that are made to performance-critical CICS initialization parameters, and the effect of these updates.
  • Description of all the updated statistics and monitoring fields.
  • Benchmarks that document improvements in XML and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) web services.
  • A description of how CICS can protect itself from unconstrained resource demand from inbound HTTP requests.
  • High-level views of new functionality that was introduced in CICS TS 5.3, including performance benchmark results where appropriate.

For a definition of performance terms used in this report, see Performance terminology. A description of the test methodology that is used can be found in Testing with performance workloads. For a full description of the workloads used, see Workload descriptions.

Where reference is made to an LSPR processor equivalent, the indicated machine type and model can be found in the large systems performance reference (LSPR) document. For more information about obtaining and using LSPR data, see Large Systems Performance Reference.

Workload environment

When the results were compiled for this report, the workloads were run on an IBM z13 model NE1 (machine type 2964). A maximum of 32 dedicated central processors (CPs) were available on the measured logical partition (LPAR), with a maximum of 4 dedicated CPs available to the LPAR that was used to simulate users. These LPARs are configured as part of a Parallel Sysplex. An internal coupling facility was co-located on the same central processor complex (CPC) as the measurement and driving LPARs. They were connected by using internal coupling peer (ICP) links. An IBM System Storage DS8870 (machine type 2424) was used to provide external storage.

This report presents the results of several performance benchmarks when run in a CICS TS for z/OS, Version 5.3 environment. Unless otherwise stated in the results, the CICS TS 5.3 environment was the code that was available at general availability (GA) time. Several of the performance benchmarks are presented in the context of a comparison against CICS TS 5.2. The CICS TS 5.2 environment contained all PTFs that were issued before 10 March 2015. All LPARs used z/OS V2.1.