Installing an application on a platform

To make a packaged CICS® application available on a platform, you install an application definition, enable the application, then make the application available.

Before you begin

Export the application to the platform home directory in zFS, and create an application definition. The application definition, which is an APPLDEF resource definition in the data repository for the CICSplex, identifies the location of the application bundle and the target platform where the application runs. You can create the application definition immediately following the export process, or you can create it at a later time. See Packaging CICS applications for deployment in a cloud environment.

About this task

Use this procedure for the first installation of a particular application on a platform, when there are no other versions of the application installed on the platform. When you replace an existing version of an application with a new version, follow the complete procedure in Updating applications deployed on platforms.

You use the CICS Cloud perspective in the CICS Explorer to install CICS applications in a platform. For detailed help about the following steps, see Working with applications in the CICS Explorer product documentation.

Procedure

  1. In the Cloud Explorer view in the CICS Cloud perspective in the CICS Explorer, locate and install the application definition.
    CICSPlex® SM creates an APPLCTN resource to represent the application in the CICSplex, and also creates a record for the application in the data repository, which is used in recovery processing for the bundles for applications. CICSPlex SM uses the information in the application bundle and the application binding to install the CICS bundles in the CICS regions in the platform. The application is initially installed in a disabled state.
  2. Using the Cloud Explorer view or the online application editor in the CICS Explorer, enable the installed application and check its status.
    When you enable the application, CICSPlex SM enables the CICS bundles that were installed for the application in all the CICS regions, but the application is not yet available to callers through its application entry points. See Checking the status of an application for instructions to check the status of the application, and for what to do if the application is not enabled.
  3. When you are ready to make the application available to users of the platform, use the Cloud Explorer view or the online application editor in the CICS Explorer to make the application available.
    The application is now available to callers through its application entry points.

Results

When you install an application in an active platform, CICSPlex SM installs the CICS bundles immediately in all the CICS regions that are defined as part of the platform, and running at the time when you install the application definition. CICSPlex SM also installs the CICS bundles in CICS regions in the platform if you start or restart the regions after the time when you install the application definition. Resources in these CICS bundles will be installed at region start up but might not become fully enabled until after control is returned to CICS. If you add further CICS regions to the platform after the time when you install the application definition, CICSPlex SM installs the CICS bundles in those regions as well.

The relationship between the application and each installed CICS bundle is saved in a management part. The management part is a MGMTPART record that is created automatically for each CICS bundle during the application install process. It records the CICS regions where the bundle is installed, and tracks the status of the bundle in the CICS regions.

An application is initially installed in a disabled state. When you enable an application, CICSPlex SM enables the CICS bundles that were installed for that application in all the CICS regions. If you start or restart a CICS region in the platform after the time when you enable the application, CICSPlex SM installs the bundles in that region in an enabled state.

When you make an application available, CICS allows callers to access the application through the CICS resources that are declared as its application entry points. Callers can either access the highest available application version, or use the EXEC CICS INVOKE APPLICATION command to access a specific application version that is available. The availability status of an application is restored if you start or restart a CICS region in the platform after the time when you make the application available.