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IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS 5.5, 5.6, and 6.1 are updated (January 2023)

News


Abstract

Details are provided of continuous delivery updates to IBM® CICS® Transaction Server for z/OS® (CICS TS) 5.5, 5.6, and 6.1.

Content

CICS Transaction Server for z/OS overview

IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS) is a world-class, secure and scalable platform for hosting transactional enterprise applications in a hybrid architecture.

In addition to the CICS TS 6.1 features available as part of general availability in June 2022, the following new features are now available:
 
  • Developer Experience and DevOps
    • Support for Java 11
      CICS provides the tools and runtime environment to develop and run Java applications in a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that is under the control of a CICS region. Developers are now able to use the latest Java 11 language features within CICS, and build Java 11 applications using the CICS APIs with the Gradle and Maven build tools.

      Available for CICS TS 5.5 and CICS TS 5.6 with APAR PH47221. CICS TS 6.1 already includes support for Java 11. Requires IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition for z/OS 11, fix pack 11.0.15.0 or later.

      Java 8 continues to be supported by IBM. For more details see Java SDK lifecycle dates.
       
    • New Aqua 3.3 includes the CICS Explorer and support for developing Java 11 applications
      Aqua provides an Eclipse-based integration platform with an extensible and compatible suit of z/OS tools and capabilities. The new Aqua 3.3 is based on Eclipse 4.23 platform that includes the latest CICS Explorer 5.5.25 and support for developing Java 11 applications.

      Available for all CICS TS releases at the IBM Aqua Download site. Alternatively, CICS Explorer can be installed into an existing Eclipse installation from the Eclipse Marketplace.
       
    • CICS TS resource builder 1.0.2
      This latest release of CICS TS resource builder delivers improved security and user experience, with easier to navigate documentation, support for the latest validation rules for CICS resource attributes, simplified installation by removing the need to manage log directories, and better online help and messages.

      Available for all CICS TS releases at the CICS TS resource builder download web page.
       
  • Security
    • Support for key rings owned by other CICS users
      A key ring is a collection of certificates that identify a networking trust relationship, also called a trust policy. CICS TS is enhanced to use key rings that are not owned by the current region user ID. This enables a key ring to be shared by many CICS regions and reduces the need to create and maintain several similar key rings.

      Available for CICS TS 5.5 and CICS TS 5.6 with APAR PH49253, and CICS TS 6.1 with APAR PH49261.
       
  • Management
    • CICS TS 5.6 and CICS TS 6.1 performance reports
      CICS TS 5.6 and CICS TS 6.1 introduced various technical and operational capabilities, including improvements that provide performance benefits over previous CICS releases. The reports give a performance view of the relevant release and provide performance benchmarks that compare these releases with their previous release. These reports can help in the planning of CICS TS upgrades and make configuration changes to improve the performance of CICS workloads.

      See topics CICS TS 5.6 performance report and CICS TS 6.1 performance report in IBM Documentation.
       

Planned availability

  • January 16, 2023: Majority of CD enhancements
  • March 31, 2023: Remainder of CD enhancements

Publications

Product documentation for CICS TS is hosted online in IBM Documentation. The documentation is refreshed regularly to reflect feedback from users, and includes changes that result from continuous delivery and IBM Service.

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Document Information

Modified date:
03 February 2023

UID

ibm16841795

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