Terminal operation

A CICS system makes provision for the following classes of operators:

$ (the dollar symbol)

In the character sets given in this book, the dollar symbol ($) is used as a national currency symbol and is assumed to be assigned the EBCDIC code point X'5B'. In some countries a different currency symbol, for example the pound symbol (£), or the yen symbol (¥), is assigned the same EBCDIC code point. In these countries, the appropriate currency symbol should be used instead of the dollar symbol.

Operator security

The transactions you can initiate are defined by your profile in the external security manager (ESM) database, which is normally provided when you sign on using the CESN transaction.

Generally, the master terminal operator has access to all CICS-supplied transactions, the supervisory terminal operator has access to a subset, and the terminal operator has access to very few transactions.

The system programmer is responsible for allocating operator security codes to restrict the use of particular transactions. For more information, see the relevant system administration guide for the ESM you are using. For example, if you are using RACF, see the Resource Access Control Facility (RACF): Security Administrator’s Guide.

Terminal operator

To operate the system, you normally first sign on to the system and, as a minimum, enter your user ID and your password.

During signon, the information you enter is used by CICS to establish priorities and your ESM profile for the transactions that you may want to use later. When you have signed on, you have access to those transactions defined in your ESM profile.

After you have signed on, you can enter only specific transaction identifiers. Be aware of error messages that might be generated by the transactions you start, and the corrective action that you must take. In addition to error messages, be aware of other messages that CICS might transmit to your terminal.

You need to know the terminal identifiers of other terminals with which you want to communicate.

Supervisory terminal operator

A supervisory terminal operator is the supervisor of any part of the system for which group control is desired. You are responsible for supervising, and keeping operational, groups of terminals defined in one or more terminal list tables (TLTs). You do this using the supervisory terminal transaction, CEST.

Your responsibilities can be thought of as a subset of those of the master terminal operator, and you should be aware of those functions that are not available to the terminals under your supervision. You also should be aware of, and understand, the procedure for changing the status of each terminal.

You should know the identifiers of all terminals and operators under your supervision. The terminal identifiers are defined in one or more CICS terminal list tables (TLTs). Individual TLTs can be identified by a 1-or 2-character suffix you enter as the SUPRID and CLASS(value) keywords of the CEST transaction.

When you use the CEST command for all terminals defined in a TLT, you have to specify the SUPRID keyword followed by the 2-character identifier of that TLT.

A subset of those terminals can be grouped together as a class, and can be defined as such in a different TLT. (For information about defining the TLT itself, see the CICS® Resource Definition Guide.) You can specify that class by means of the CLASS(value) keyword of the CEST SET TERMINAL command, where ‘value’ is the suffix that identifies the TLT in which the class of terminals has been defined.

Alternatively, you can name one or more terminals in the CEST SET TERMINAL(value) command itself.

If you frequently want to restrict a CEST command to a subset of your terminals, and have defined another TLT identifying that subset, you then have to use the CEST SET TERMINAL SUPRID(value) keyword to refer to the "main" TLT, followed by the CLASS(value) keyword to refer to the specific TLT containing the subset.

So, for example, if you have defined terminals S202, S203, S204, and S205 in DFHTLTAB and you want to issue a CEST command that sets all those terminals out of service, you issue the following command:

CEST SET TERMINAL SUPRID(AB) OUTSERVICE

If, on the other hand, you want to restrict your command(s) to terminals S202 and S204, for example, you could define these two terminals in another TLT--DFHTLTCD, say--and issue the following command:

CEST SET TERMINAL SUPRID(AB) CLASS(CD) OUTSERVICE

Alternatively, of course, you could issue the following command:

CEST SET TERMINAL(S202,S204) SUPRID(AB) OUTSERVICE

Unless otherwise stated, the information in this book about the supervisory terminal and the CEST transaction applies only to a single CICS system, regardless of whether it is connected to another CICS system through ISC or MRO.

Master terminal operator

The master terminal operator controls system components using the master terminal transaction, CEMT. With this transaction, the master terminal operator can dynamically change the system control parameters.

Although the transaction can be started at any valid IBM 3270 family display device or equivalent terminal, or from the operating system console, its use is intended to be limited to a person known as the master terminal operator. Starting a transaction from the operating system console is described in Using the system console.

The control permitted through CEMT allows you, the master terminal operator, to improve performance by changing the system control parameters in the day-to-day operation of the system. In addition to system control, you have prime responsibility for administering the terminal facilities of the system.

By using the routing transaction (CRTE), you can also be a master terminal operator for multiple connected CICS systems.

As the master terminal operator, you can access all terminal and supervisory terminal transactions. In addition, however, you must be familiar with all the procedures associated exclusively with the master terminal. You must be aware of which terminals and operators can access CICS at any given time, and of the identifiers by which they are known to CICS.

For example, when inquiring about terminals, you can specify a class of terminals or a list of terminals. A class of terminals is specified by the CLASS(value) keyword, where ‘value’ is the 1-or 2-character suffix of the related terminal list table (DFHTLTxx). A list of terminals is specified by a series of terminal identifiers following the CEMT SET TERMINAL(t1,t2,...,) command, where t1, t2, are terminal identifiers. See List of resource identifiers for more information.

For MRO and LUTYPE6.1 connections, you must know the identifier of each parallel session, and specify this identifier when operating on the session.

For LUTYPE6.2 (APPC) connections, you must know the modename of each set of parallel sessions, and specify this modename when operating on the modegroup.

Your use of the master terminal transaction is restricted by entries in the signon table and in the installed transaction definitions. These entries are the responsibility of the system programmer.

During long periods of continuous operation, you can, at intervals, read out and reset the statistics counters. The volume of activity in your system determines how often you should do this.

When the system has satisfactorily completed its response to a command, the time and date are printed or displayed at your terminal, as follows:

TIME=hh.mm.ss DATE=mm.dd.yy

where time is in hours, minutes, and seconds, and date is in months, days, and years, or in the form specified by the DATFORM system initialization parameter. For brevity this final message has been deleted from all examples in the remainder of the book.

Unless otherwise stated, the information about the master terminal and its transactions given in this book applies only to a single CICS system, regardless of whether it is connected to another CICS system through ISC or MRO.

MRO and ISC support

Multiregion operation (MRO) and intersystem communication (ISC) allow the sharing of resources between more than one CICS region. Thus a user at a terminal assigned to one CICS region can run transactions in connected regions, and can access resources--files, for example--in other regions.

It is also possible for a transaction running in one region to communicate with a transaction running in another region, thus sharing the processing workload.

Except for experiencing longer response times, you should not be aware that MRO or ISC processes are being used.

BMS partitions

When you use display devices that support BMS partitions, make sure that you understand:

For information about BMS partitions, see the CICS Application Programming Guide.

CLEAR key

The CLEAR key clears all partitions from the display, and sets the terminal to ‘base’ state. The next BMS output request recreates the partitions (but does not restore their contents), using the application partition set.

The CLEAR and CLEAR PARTITION keys cannot be used interchangeably when an existing CICS transaction is run in a single explicit partition.

Partitions and the execution diagnostic facility

The execution diagnostic facility (EDF), invoked by CEDF, is not available in single-screen mode on a terminal in partitioned state. EDF must be used in dual-screen mode for debugging application programs that use partitions.

Partitions and the command interpreter

The CICS command interpreter, invoked by CECI or CECS, cannot be used to process commands that refer to partitions. This is because the command interpreter display cannot be restored after the screen has been partitioned.

PA1 print key

The PA1 print key is not supported from a terminal in partitioned state.

Routing and multiple partitions

Routed messages can be directed to a terminal, including the transaction terminal, which supports partitions. However, such messages reset the terminal to ‘base’ state.

Terminal paging

When a BMS logical message is saved in CICS temporary storage, CICS also saves the application partition set. This partition set is loaded onto the target terminal before any pages are delivered. CICS builds a separate page for each partition, and overflow occurs on a partition basis.

Page retrieval

Terminal-operator page-retrieval commands operate on a partition basis. When a page-retrieval or page-copy command is entered in a partition, it implicitly refers to pages in that partition. If single-keystroke retrieval is used, the retrieval command applies to the partition containing the cursor when the PF key is pressed. The first page for a partition is displayed initially in the viewport.

Message chaining

CICS retains a current partition for each level of page chaining. This is initially the default partition for that partition set. Page-retrieval commands entered on a cleared screen, or page-retrieval commands for a chaining level other than the one being displayed, refer to the current partition for the target chaining level. The current partition is reset to the partition in which the last terminal-operator command was entered.

CICS retains the current page for each partition in the partition set. This is initially the first page. The current page is redisplayed in each partition in the following circumstances:

Copying pages

BMS page copy operates on a partition basis (not a screen or partition set basis). BMS page copy copies a page from a partition to any terminal in ‘base’ state. You cannot copy a page from a partition to another partition on the same or another terminal.

Message termination

When you terminate a message, the entire logical message (that is, all pages in all partitions) is purged, irrespective of the partition in which you entered the purge command.

The response to a page query request is displayed on a cleared, unpartitioned screen.

Error messages

Most error messages relating to invalid paging commands are displayed with an erase or write in the partition in which you entered the command. Other error messages unrelated to any particular partition (such as those relating to invalid message identifiers) are displayed on a cleared unpartitioned screen.

Related tasks
Using CICS supplied transactions
How to start or stop a transaction
Syntax notation and conventions used
Using the system console
Using TSO consoles
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