Cics Explorer April 2009

®

IBM Software Group

© IBM Corporation 2009

CICS Explorer

The New Face of CICS

Peter Siddell

CICS Tools Development

Hursley – IBM UK

[email protected]

IBM Software Group

2© IBM Corporation 2009

Business problem - IBM Solution

First- and second-generation System z specialists exit the industry Enterprises must transfer skills, knowledge and best practice to new CICS technical staff

Productivity must be maintained, and service-levels protected

Opportunity to build new System z skill pool Specialists can collaborate with new developers and administrators to create new

applications, and manage IT resources with a smaller operations team.

CICS family intends to make a significant contribution by reducing the skills barrier to the development and management of CICS systems

IBM CICS Explorer Common, intuitive, Eclipse-based tooling environment for architects, developers, system

administrators, system programmers, and operators

Integrated access to a broad range of data and control capabilities

Supports CICS runtime, CICS tools, and CICS connectors, plus other IBM and third-party software products

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View SystemsView status

of tasks

Edit Resource Definitions

Resource and System Groups

Active CICS Systems in the selected PLEX

View Queue InformationViews Program

Definitions

CICS Explorer

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Interdependency Analyzer

Configuration Manager Performance Analyzer

Change Packages

Resource Definitions for the CSD

View Resources used by a

transaction

Shipped Sampled Queries

View tree of resources used

Transactions Captured

Average CPU Time

Provides Scenarios for analysing data

CICS Tools Integrated within CICS Explorer Framework

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Example task-oriented layouts

1. CSD Clean up – using IA, SM and CM

2. Identify Business applications using IA, migrate to new regions using CM

3. PA,SM,CM performs governance: see performance changes of recently modified resources

Using tools integrated with CICS Explorer Customise the layout to suit tasks

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Feedback

“If you are not using it, or you're not trying it, well, you should!”, “Much, much more intuitive”, “A lot more room to grow”

"Whole thing is brilliant", "Help to keep people from moving off the platform", "Greatest product of all time [CICS])"

"I see the explorer as bridging communities moving towards XDE rather than IDE" .

"The CICS Explorer is an extremely powerful SOA tool when combined with CICS", "The CICS Explorer is just the tool to extend CICS Sub-systems to SOA environments", "Demand for services is so great that addressing the application developer desires with Rational support make sense. What took you so long?"

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IBM CICS Explorer - The New Face of CICSKey features

Common, intuitive, Eclipse-based environment for architects, developers, administrators, system programmers, and operatorsTask-oriented views provide integrated access to broad range of data and control capabilities Powerful, context-sensitive resource editors

Also packaged with Rational Developer for System zIntegration point for CICS TS, CICS Tools, CICS TG, PD Tools, and Rational ToolsExtensible by ISVs, SIs, and customers

CICS supportCICS Transaction Server for z/OS V3.1, V3.2

CICSPlex SM WUI server required for CICS resource views

AvailabilityJoin beta program now - for information, contact [email protected] to be available 4Q2008Full function with next release of CICS TS in 2009

Statement of Direction dated 5 Aug 2008http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/8/897/ENUS208-248

Webcast held 5 Nov 2008http://www.ibm.com/software/systemz/webcast/5nov

Coming soon in CICS Explorer

•Real-time CICS resource status

•Resource dependency views

•Manage and Control resource definitions

•Performance data drill-down

•CICS TG gateway status

•Sub-set packaged with RDz

Please note: This slide represents IBM’s current intent, but plans are subject to change.

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Future direction

CICS Explorer Tooling integration point for the CICS runtime, providing a rich set of CICS views, data, methods, and widgets Extensible by IBM, other vendors, and customers to deliver integrated solutions to key CICS users Software Development Kit (SDK) will allow clients and business partners to construct and integrate their own plug-ins

CICS Transaction Server Current and future releases will integrate the CICS Explorer into their deliverables Future releases of CICS TS will build on ATOM/REST support (see SupportPac CA8K) to provide even more control

of the CICS runtime from the CICS Explorer

CICS Tools Complement and enrich the base data and methods provided by the CICS Explorer Views, methods, and data to support performance analysis, configuration, and inter-dependency analysis CICS Tools will work together to deliver integrated solutions that cross traditional product boundaries.

CICS Transaction Gateway Will introduce a plug-in for the CICS Explorer, providing an even broader view of the greater CICS environment

IBM Problem Determination Tools Will integrate with the CICS Explorer to provide a more integrated, application development support environment for

CICS, adding to existing PD Tools support for CICS currently integrated in RDz

IBM Rational RDz will deliver an integrated version of the CICS Explorer to provide a consistent control point for CICS development

environments Further integration with CICS Tools will simplify the interactions between the development and operational processes.

Business Partners Development Kit (SDK) and a business partner program will facilitate ability to integrate existing and new solutions

with the CICS Explorer

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Product Positioning

CICSPlex Systems Manager CICSPlex SM provides a single holistic view of complex environments to enable easier

configuration and administration of CICS systems IBM will continue to invest in this strategic CICS management framework CPSM WUI retains role as an important operational and control interface

The CICS Explorer Complements and extends CICSPlex Systems manager by providing a more intuitive

interface, and an integration point with other CICS-related tooling solutions Complements and extends RDz with unified view of CICS resources and is basis for

CICS-centric System Programmer / Application Development activities

Rational Developer for System Z RDz remains the strategic application development platform for CICS applications Provides a unified development environment for maintaining / developing new CICS and

other System z workload and connecting CICS in a heterogeneous environment IBM continues to invest in RDz - recent PD tools integration, CICS TS V3.2 support

CICS Configuration Manager CICS CM will continue to provide the auditable, single point of control for CICS

definitions across the entire development, test and production life cycle

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CICS Managed Early Programs Why should customers participate?

Get an early view and hands-on experience of CICS products Influence the future trends and directions of the product Test applications with pre-release product code (in some cases, including some CICS vendor

products) Keep up with (or even overtake) your competitors by exploiting the next release of the product Receive related Education & Technical Support

Customers are expected to: Exercise new functions in the early product Participate in mutually agreed status calls, where applicable - e.g. 30 mins every other week Provide an exit report at the end of the program (skeleton is provided) Provide some form of public reference After successful completion of testing, order and install the product at GA

Currently running early programs CICS TS CICS Explorer CICS Transaction Gateway

Apply to become involved with CICS Early Program offerings For more information, contact : [email protected] (Notes: Global CICSEP/UK/IBM) Link to nomination form

®

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© IBM Corporation 2009

CICS ExplorerSample screenshots

The following screenshots are preliminary and subject to change, but show current

level of working code or prototypes. These are not mock-ups.

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Explorer Trends and Directions with CICS Tools

CICS Interdependency Analyzer

CICS Explorer(Available to CICS TS V3 users)

Task features (plug-ins) for

CICS Transaction Server V3

CICS Performance Analyzer

CICS Configuration Manager

CICS Interdependency Analyzer

Available Today… In The Works…

CICS Configuration Manager

CICS Performance Analyzer

CICS TS V3.2

What is the CICS Explorer?A new user interface to reduce the skills required to develop, deploy and manage CICS applications. The CICS Explorer will be incorporated in current and future releases of CICS Transaction Server as a strategic point of integration between the run-time and add-on tools, extensible by IBM, business partners and clients.

Powerful, intuitive, Eclipse-based user interface

Runtime

Config Management

Discove

ry

Performance

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CICS Interdependency Analyzer Explorer

List of all Programs

List of all Transactions

List of all RegionsSaved query definitions Results of queries

Breakdown of resources used

Call tree of program executionWhere is resource used ?

What is CICS IA?A discovery tool that identifies resource interdependencies in your CICS systems. Automates detection of your CICS runtime relationships and populates data in a DB2® database for off production analysis.

Now includes a powerful eclipse-based query user interface

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CICS Explorer - Program Definition editor - CPSM

Everything greyed out because …

… it's a 3.1 system that uses the CPSM WUI server that is

read only.

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CICS Explorer - Program Definition editor - CICS CM

The editor is input capable (i.e. fields aren't grey) and

changes can be made

…because same system connected

to using CM

The history view shows who made changes, when

changed, by attribute

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CICS Explorer - Powerful, context-sensitive resource editors

Editors only show applicable attributes and tabs - overview/runtime/printer are all

specific for a TDQ of type "Extra Partition" This shows how for a non-CM connection

the history view just gracefully says that the function isn't available.

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CICS Explorer - TD Queue resource editors

Unlike CEDA or the WUI whose editors show too much information and allow the user to make

mistakes, the CICS Explorer editors only show and present what's relevant to the resource type

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CICS Explorer - No “magic” values - Journal editor

Specifying which attributes to log in a journal for a file is very involved in CEDA and the WUI

Compare again the explorer with the WUI

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CICS Explorer - No “magic” values - Transaction editor

In CEDA or the WUI the user has to know the “magic values”. DTIMEOUT of a TRANDEF

contains values of "0" meaning "No timeout", "SYSTEM" meaning "Use system value" or else

a time in milliseconds.

In CICS Explorer editors, no special values are entered into text fields - everything is done with radio buttons, combos, radios,

and other advanced controls

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CICS Explorer - Editor validation

… and the configuration file name has an invalid character entered.

An advantage of an Eclipse client over a browser/TSO/ISPF interface which is that keystroke by keystroke client validation

occurs making the GUI more responsive (no server roundtrips) and less errors get sent down the wire to CICS

making it faster.

Each error field has a red X next to it to show it's bad, and hovering over the red X bring up a tooltip with the error. All errors can be seen by hovering

over the red X at the top of the screen.

The pipeline definition below has two errors - 20p is not a valid number …

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CICS Explorer - CICS IA perspective

Lets you do things like see the

resources the collector

observed and see where they're

used.

Lists regions where the

collector has run

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CICS Explorer - CICS IA integration in CICSPlex perspective

The pop-up lets you run the IA query straight from the region and the results are shown in a search results

window at the bottom

If the IA collector has run in the region - a little decoration is

shown in the bottom right hand corner

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CICS Explorer - CICS IA integration in CICSPlex perspective

IA extends the context menu (pop-up) so you can easily see the information that IA

has about the usage of the file so the "Used By Programs" and "Used By Transactions“

…

… is available on a live resource and opens the search results at

the bottom.

The list of files in the Explorer - the files actually installed in the region, and their current status.

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CICS PA - Full Eclipse Integration

Conventional Eclipse style integration:

Projects, folders, files etc

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CICS PA - Rich workspace

Ability to “Drill into” data files

See extracts of the file in raw data form..

..or follow “Analysis Scenarios” to

highlight issues

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CICS PA - Visualization 1

Presentation most appropriate to data

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Flexibility in what you want to see

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Comparison between “before and after” situations

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Thank you !

Any questions ?

Cics Explorer April 2009

Education

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