What's new in CICS IA Version 5.3
CICS® IA Version 5.3 delivers a wide range of important new capabilities.
Application onboarding
CICS IA Version 5.3 introduces a number of new DB2 stored procedures, which are driven by the CICS IA plug-in. CICS IA Version 5.3 assists you to create a CICS bundle that defines the entry points for your application. This bundle can then be included in your CICS application bundle, therefore, enabling you to quickly create a CICS Transaction Server V5 cloud application and deploy it into a CICS TS V5 platform.
After you deploy this application and collect the CICS IA data, you can then identify the dependencies for this application and create a new CICS bundle or update an existing CICS bundle to import these dependencies.
Scenario-based collections
Previously in CICS IA, it was possible to operate the Dependency and Affinity collector from the CICS IA plug-in. This capability is now extended to scenario-based collections where the CICS IA options that are required are set, depending on the type of collection required. For example, you can start a CICS Threadsafe Collection. Selecting to run a specific scenario turns on all of the options that are required for that scenario before the collector is started.
New CICS IA perspective
Within the CICS IA perspective (plug-in), there are fewer views. There is a new IA Navigation view under which you can find different folders that contain all of the data. This new consolidated view eliminates the need to switch between the views in the middle pane. Some other views are transformed to editors that are only displayed on-demand to improve the usability and overall user experience within the perspective.
Default configuration
The CICS IA configuration utility is updated to allow the user to select a “SHORT” or a “FULL” configuration. The “SHORT” configuration prompts the user to enter the minimum values that are required to get your CICS IA system up and running. To fine-tune the default values within your environment, you can select the “FULL” configuration.
Database purge
- TSQ or ENQ objects, which are related resources with a duplicate name prefix.
- Records that are related to old versions of a program.
Other enhancements
- The collection of dynamic calls for COBOL Version 5.
- The identification of the remote SYSID and remote name for file commands.
- The Resource Prefix list is replaced by the Resource Compression list, which allows the user to apply a compression rule and also preserve a part of the resource name.
- The command flow feature is expanded to collect Software AG’s Natural program calls.