This section gives you a brief overview of the main elements of the CICSPlex® SM environment. See Figure 1.
Each CICS system to be managed by CICSPlex SM is called a managed application system (MAS). The MASs are defined and managed as part of a CICSplex. Each MAS in a CICSplex is managed by a CICSPlex SM address space (CMAS). For the CICSPlex SMcomponent of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, Version 3 Release 1, this must be a CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, Version 3 Release 1 system running on an MVS image (the release level of CICSPlex SM and the CICS system of the CMAS must be the same). For more information about system connectability, see CICS system connectivity.
The MASs in a CICSplex can be managed by several CMASs, but only one
is defined as the maintenance point CMAS responsible
for keeping the data used by each CMAS synchronized.
CMASs communicate across CMAS-to-CMAS links, which are typically used for routing management commands and data between CMASs. A coordinating address space (CAS) is used to set up the CICSPlex SM component topology, and to support the MVS/TSO ISPF end-user interface (EUI) to CICSPlex SM.
The CICSPlex SM Web User Interface is an alternative to the MVS/TSO ISPF end-user interface. The Web User Interface server runs on a dedicated CICSPlex SM local MAS at the same release level connected to a CMAS. See The CICSPlex SM Web User Interface for more information.
Resource definition is managed through Business Application Services (BAS). Workload management (WLM), real-time analysis (RTA), and monitoring services are used to manage the CICSPlex SM configuration and gather statistical information.
All CICSPlex SM components, resources, system management requirements, and the relationships between them, are held as objects (see CICSPlex SM objects) in a data repository (see The data repository). These objects can be manipulated using the end-user interface views (see The CICSPlex SM end user interface (EUI)). The batched repository-update facility (see The batched repository-update facility) is provided for the batched creation of CICSPlex SM resource definitions.