IBM Education for CICS TS and CICS Tools

CICSPlex SM (CPSM) Education

• CPSM API Requests - Hangs and Timeouts was conductd on 18 September 2012. This presentation is a CICS Level2 perspective on the processing and handling of application programming interface (API) requests within CICSPlex SM (CPSM) when entered using the Web User Interface (WUI) or CICS Explorer. It includes debugging instructions for when a hang or timeout condition occurs.    
   
• Migrating a CICSplex from one Sysplex to another using the EYU9XDBT Utility conducted on 10 November 2010, by Brad Dixon and Greg Todaro, is designed to show how to migrate a CICSplex from one environment (Sysplex) to another using the CPSM EYU9XDBT Utility. It presents a basic step-by-step plan with samples that you can use as a model for your own shop.    
   
• CPSM Workload Manager Level Tracing conducted on 6 December 2007, presented by Michael Barrett and Tony Bertolozzi, was designed to help you determine why transactions are being routed to a particular CICS region. The emphasis was on setting up and interpreting CICSPlex SM (CPSM) Workload Manager Level Traces.    
   
• Best Practices for Maintaining a Healthy CICSPlex SM Configuration conducted on 30 August 2007, presented by Brad Dixon and Bill Bulfin, will provide you with some best practices for configuring your CICSPlex SM environment to avoid problems and maintain high availability of your CICSplex.    
   
• Using the CPSM WUI for problem determination in a CICSplex conducted on 14 November 2006, presented by Brad Dixon, demonstrates how CICSPlex SM (CPSM) along with the Web User Interface (WUI) provides a single system image so that problems spanning multiple LPARs can be handled quickly.     

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CICS File Control Education   
 

• CICS File Control Debugging Techniques conducted on 3 June 2008, presented by Ed Addison, is designed to show you how debugging has become a lost art. This is the session for you if you want to build your CICS debugging skills. This session will concentrate where CICS Level 2 has seen the most problems in File Control. You will learn how to debug FCIOWAITs, Private String waits, and Enqueues.    
   
• CICS and Transactional VSAM conducted on 5 April 2007, presented by Edward Addison, is designed to discuss the ability of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS to provide substantial improvements in MVS Parallel Sysplex exploitation and data sharing with integrity. Transactional VSAM (DFSMStvs) enables batch applications to share recoverable VSAM data with integrity with multiple CICS regions in the Sysplex.    
   
• CICS and VSAM Performance considerations conducted on 11 May 2006, presented by Ed Addison, is designed to provide CICS and VSAM Performance considerations. Included in this session was a performance comparison of Record Level Sharing (RLS) to traditional CICS and VSAM File Control.    
   

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CICS Java Education    
 

• An IBM Redbooks video course Extending a CICS web application using JCICS was published 15 May 2017 provides Java application developers with a step-by-step guide to CICS Java development, demonstrating how to access common CICS resources using the JCICS API.    
   
• An IBM Redbooks video course Architecting Java solutions for CICS was published 3 April 2017. This course presents the compelling reasons for developing Java applications in CICS Transaction Server. The course covers the various usage models of Java applications in CICS, along with an explanation of the technologies involved.    
   
• An IBM Redbooks video course Developing a RESTful Web application for Liberty in CICS was published 13 February 2017. This course provides a step-by-step guide for creating a simple RESTful Java application, then deploying it into WebSphere Liberty running in IBM CICS Transaction Server.     
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CICS Db2 Education
 

• CICS and Db2 Debugging Tips conducted on 8 March 2007, presented by Dan Zachary, describes how to use a CICS system dump to expose the root cause of task hangs. The emphasis is on task hangs having to do with CICS and Db2, but the techniques discussed are also applicable to other types of task hangs    
   

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CICS Storage Education    
 

• Debugging Storage Violations in CICS was held on 10 November 2015 and presented by Scott McClure. This Support Technical Exchange presentation will teach you the basics of debugging a storage violation within CICS TS.    
   
• CICS Storage 101B - a look into CICS Dynamic Storage Areas - updated for CICS TS V5 was held on 15 September 2015. This Support Technical Exchange is designed to provide a look into CICS Dynamic Storage Areas (DSA), how they are managed and show examples from a system dump. This is an updated version of the previous Storage 101 Technical Exchange, showing the above the bar DSA and other enhancements.    
   
• CICS Storage 102 - Debugging CICS Short on Storage Conditions was conducted on 10 August 2011 by Sarah Bertram and Erich Hoppe. This Support Technical Exchange focuses on short on storage conditions inside CICS Transaction Server for z/OS and shows debugging techniques using system dumps. This session is designed to be a continuation of the CICS Storage 101 presentation given in November 2010.    
   
• Approaching COBOL Storage Overlays in CICS conducted on 24 November 2010, by Paul Albrecht, is designed to offer diagnostic approaches for COBOL application storage overlays within CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS). These approaches include using CICS dumps with and without an active trace. CICS, Language Environment (LE), and COBOL storage areas, control blocks, and diagnostic methods are also reviewed.    
   
• CICS Storage 101 - A Look into CICS Dynamic Storage Areas conducted on 17 November 2010, by Sarah Bertram and Erich Hoppe, is designed to provide a look into CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS) dynamic storage areas (DSAs). It shows how the DSAs are managed using examples from a system dump.    
   
• Serviceability for COBOL working storage in the CICS environment conducted on 12 November 2009, by Paul Albrecht, offers alternative approaches to diagnosing COBOL working storage overlays that reside outside of the scope of the CICS storage checker and COBOL's language features. The approaches include coding concepts, along with CICS dump and trace diagnostics.    
   

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CICS Web services Education

• CICS Web services Part 2 - Deployment was held on 26 April 2022. This Support Technical Exchange is designed to discuss aspects of deployment of Web Services in CICS, covering deployment of Web Services, including best practices for Cloud Applications and the use of CICS Explorer. It also covers new security capabilities provided by CICS support of SAML Assertions and Kerberos Tickets.    
   
• CICS Web services Part 1 - Development was held on 16 November 2021. This Support Technical Exchange is the first of a two-part series that discusses all aspects of hosting Web Services in CICS TS. It covers the Development of Web Services, including best practices, and the use of IBM Rational Developer for System z (RDz). It also covers the development of both SOAP and JSON Web Services, and enhancements from CICS TS V5.2.    
   
• CICS Web services structure and debugging conducted on 18 June 2009, by Charlie Wiese, briefly reviews Web services processing and configuration requirements, before discussing detailed diagnostic techniques and approaches to identifying problems. The session also discusses the type of documentation that is useful for observing Web services processing errors.    
   
• CICS Web Services: Problems and Pitfalls conducted on 12 June 2008, presented by Charlie Wiese, is designed to show you how CICS Web services gives new life to established applications and a new delivery vehicle for vital business applications. You will learn techniques for investigating problems in CICS Web services processing, and discover solutions for the most common errors seen by the Support Center.    
   
• Understanding Urimaps, Pipelines and Webservices for CICS conducted on 4 October 2007, presented by Steve Webb, shows how the URIMAP, PIPELINE and WEBSERVICE definitions in CICS interact with each other and how they can be used for a service provider and service requester environment as part of an SOA solution. It focuses on CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V3.2.    
   

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CICS Troubleshooting Education    
 

• CICS Academy: CICS Trace, Dump, and Debugging was presented on 10 September 2025. In this presentation, learn the basics of what an abend is and how to debug an abend, understand on which system a problem exits, interpret dumps on z/OS and understand how to take the correct dumps for failures, understand how to start IPCS and enter the commands required to view the dump taken for a problem, know what resources are available to resolve a problem, and build your confidence so you are able to troubleshoot future problems.    
   
• CPSM API Requests - Hangs and Timeouts was conducted on 18 September 2012. This presentation is a CICS Level2 perspective on the processing and handling of application programming interface (API) requests within CICSPlex SM (CPSM) when entered using the Web User Interface (WUI) or CICS Explorer. It includes debugging instructions for when a hang or timeout condition occurs.    
   
• Intermediate CICS debugging techniques - More IPCS for CICS dump analysis conducted on 02 June 2009, by Sarah Bertram and Charlie Wiese, is designed as a continuation of the information provided in "CICS Debugging Basics" (originally presented on 20 September 2007). This presentation describes further commands and techniques useful for examining CICS System dumps using IPCS.    
   
• CICS Hangs and Slowdowns - How to use a dump to determine the cause conducted on 21 April 2009, by Dan Zachary, shows how to use the CICS IPCS VERBX dump formatters and the z/OS dump formatters to identify the cause of CICS hangs and severe slowdowns.    
   
• Debugging IRLINK Waits within CICS conducted on 1 November 2007, presented by Scott McClure, will help you determine why your remote tasks appear to hang with a status of IRLINK Wait. This presentation will guide you through the debug process to determine why and where your remote transaction is hung.    
   
• CICS Debugging Basics conducted on 20 September 2007, presented by Sarah Bertram and Charlie Wiese, was designed to provide a brief introduction to techniques used to examine CICS System dumps using IPCS. Different types of dumps were discussed and excerpts from a sample dump was used to illustrate the commands and concepts associated with the IPCS and CICS verb exit.    
   

Note: there are additional troubleshooting presentations included under the other specific topics like File Control and Java.    
 

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CICS Other Topics Education    
 

• An IBM Redbooks video course Introduction to CICS was published 29 August 2017 and explores what an application server is, what it provides to developers and what distinguishes CICS as a mixed language application server. Through the use of a illustrative application, we explain how CICS can provide shared programming contexts such as reliability, scalability, security and monitoring to applications written in a variety of programming languages - from Java Enterprise Edition to COBOL.    
   
• CL/SUPERSESSION Top 10 Issues and Solutions was conducted on 4 May 2011 by Sue Demarrais, Tom LaRocco, and Wayne Winsor. This Support Technical Exchange is designed to discuss many of the most active IBM CL/SUPERSESSION for z/OS problems and solutions. The use of the SUPERSESSION Support Portal to find the most current maintenance, manuals, and technotes. And, a list of items needed to use IMS V10 and later.    
   
• CICS Performance Basics conducted on 3 February 2009, presented by Daniel Zachary, clarifies the meaning of the most important CICS Performance Class Monitoring fields. It shows how to access these fields in a dump, and how to use them to identify the source of performance problems.    
   
• IP Interconnectivity (IPIC) Connection Overview conducted on 10 December 2008 presented a technical overview of the changes to CICS connectivity with TCP/IP. CICS TS V3.2 allows communication between CICS regions using TCP/IP as a transport for processing Distributed Program Link requests.    
   
• How security works in a CICS MRO and LU62 environment conducted on 2 Nov 2005, presented by Scott McClure, is designed to provide information about how security works in a CICS MRO and LU62 environment. This presentation focused on security but also discussed an important change made to EXEC CICS SIGNON and SIGNOFF.    
   

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