Deploying a CICS bundle

You can deploy a CICS® bundle by exporting it directly to a z/OS® UNIX System Services (z/OS UNIX) file system from CICS Explorer®. Use a BUNDLE resource to locate the bundle in zFS and dynamically create the resources from the bundle in the CICS region.

Before you begin

You must ensure that your zFS file permissions are set so that bundles exported from CICS Explorer can be written to the platform home directory or target directory on zFS, and read by all the CICS regions in the platform, or the appropriate CICS region.

Set the file mode creation mask for the z/OS FTP daemon to ensure that the owner has write permissions and the group has read permissions. To configure this, use the UMASK statement in the FTP.DATA configuration file.
Optionally, if you are also using UNIX System Services (USS) access control list (ACL) entries to control security, ensure that the default ACLs are inherited from the platform home directory in zFS, for example /var/cicsts/CICSplex/platform1, where CICSplex is the name of your CICSplex and platform1 is the name of your platform.

About this task

After you create a CICS bundle in CICS Explorer, you must export it to a z/OS UNIX file system to make it available in CICS. You can deploy a CICS bundle project individually or with a management bundle. For example, if the bundle project is part of an application to be deployed on a platform, you can deploy it with the application bundle by exporting the Application project. The following procedure describes how to deploy a CICS bundle individually.

Note: If you are not authorized to deploy the bundle directly to a z/OS file system, you can export the CICS bundle project as a compressed file to your local file system. For more information, see Exporting a CICS bundle project to your local file system. However, this option does not apply to a CICS bundle project that contains an OSGi bundle.

Procedure

Navigate to the Project Explorer.
Right-click your CICS bundle project and click Export Bundle Project to z/OS UNIX File System. You can now choose to export to the home directory of your platform or to a specific location in the file system.
Click one of the following buttons to specify where to export the application:
- Note: The check box at the bottom of the page controls whether your setting is remembered for this project.
- Export to the home directory of a Platform. If you select this choice, click Next, then complete the following steps:
  1. Select the application to export (the field is pre-filled with the current selection if applicable).
  2. Select the destination platform for the export.
  3. If you want to replace variables in your CICS bundle project with the values in the variables.properties file, select the Resolve variables using properties file check box.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Select the z/OS connection to use for the export. When you make a selection, the connection is established, and the wizard checks for the bundles and applications subdirectories of the platform home directory using that connection.
  6. Click Finish.
- Export to a specific location in the file system. If you select this option, click Next.
In the Connection field, select a suitable z/OS connection to the remote file system. You can click the connection icon to use the currently displayed one, or click the arrow to select another or to create a new connection. Supported options are z/OS FTP connection, z/OS Remote System (RSE) connection, and z/OSMF connection.
Note:
- To use the RSE connection, the RSE host component must be installed.
- For multi-factor authentication (MFA) support to work in CICS Explorer, an RSE connection must be used. See Multi-factor authentication (MFA) credentials for CICS Explorer connections.
In the Parent Directory field, specify the name of a z/OS UNIX file system directory as a target for the transfer. This can be a new or an existing directory. When you type the name of a directory folder, the directory tree is refreshed and this folder, if it exists, 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.
The Bundle Directory field shows the target directory for the exported bundle. By default, the bundle directory name uses the bundle ID and the version. If you have not specified an ID or version, the name of the bundle is used. You can overtype the directory name to change it.
Optional: Select the Clear existing contents of Bundle directory check box to remove any folders and files in the target directory before performing the file transfer. If you do not select the check box and a folder by that name exists, the export does not take place.
If you want to replace variables in your CICS bundle project with the values in the variables.properties file, select the Resolve variables using properties file check box.
Click Finish.

Results

The bundle project is exported to the target directory on z/OS UNIX.

For an OSGi project, if a version range was defined when the OSGi bundle reference was added to the CICS bundle project, the highest version in that range of the OSGi project is included.

What to do next

Define and enable a BUNDLE resource for the CICS bundle. You can create a definition by opening the Bundle Definitions view. When the BUNDLE resource is enabled, CICS reads the manifest in the bundle directory and dynamically creates the CICS resources. It also checks that any dependencies are present in the CICS region. For more information about bundle resources, see BUNDLE resources in the CICS TS V5.4.0 product documentation.

Note: When you have created and deployed your CICS bundle project using the CICS Explorer, you must ensure proper management of the project source. The CICS bundle cannot be reconstructed from the exported data in zFS, and a failure of your workstation might cause the data to be lost. You can use the Export function of CICS Explorer to export the project and check it in to a source code management system.