BMS support levels

There are three levels of BMS support: minimum, standard, and full. Most installations use full BMS. If yours does, you can use all the features of BMS. If your installation uses minimum or standard BMS, note the features that require levels beyond yours.

The features are summarized here, and they are noted again whenever a facility that is not in minimum BMS is covered.

Minimum BMS

Minimum BMS supports all the basic functions for 3270 terminals, including everything described in our example and in the discussion of simple mapped output and mapped input.

Note: Minimum BMS has a substantially shorter path length than standard or full BMS. It is included in the larger versions and invoked as a fast path on commands that do not require function beyond what it provides. Specifically, it is used for SEND MAP and SEND CONTROL commands without the ACCUM, PAGING, SET, OUTPARTN, ACTPARTN, LDC, MSR, or REQID options, and for RECEIVE MAP commands, when your principal facility is a 3270 display or printer whose definition does not include outboard formatting. You can tell whether a particular BMS request used the fast path by looking at the CICS® trace table. When fast path is used, the trace table contains duplicate entries for the BMS entry and exit code.

Standard BMS

Standard BMS adds:
  • Support for terminals other than 3270s
  • Text output commands
  • Support for special hardware features: partitions, logical devices codes, magnetic slot readers, outboard formatting, and so on
  • Additional options on the SEND command: NLEOM and FMHPARM
Standard BMS supports these terminals:
  • Sequential terminals (composed of card readers, line printers, tape, or disk)
  • TWX Model 33/35
  • 1050
  • 2740-1 (no buffer receive), 2740-2, 2741
  • 2770
  • 2780
  • 2980, models 1, 2 and 4
  • 3270
  • 3600 (3601) LU
  • 3650 (3653 and 3270 host conversational LUs)
  • 3650 interpreter LU
  • 3767/3770 interactive LU
  • 3770 batch LU
  • 3780
  • LU type 4

Full BMS

Full BMS is required for:
  • Sending BMS output other than directly to your own terminal (the SET and PAGING options, and BMS routing)
  • Messages built cumulatively, with multiple BMS SEND commands (the ACCUM and PAGING options)
BMS is fully supported on CICS Transaction Server for z/OS and CICS Transaction Server for VSE.