Reasons for invalid profiles

An APPC profile can become invalid for a number of reasons; for example:

Sessions that are already acquired still continue to function normally if bind security fails in another session. If you are using expiring session keys, then the connection can still be used after the expiry date, if any of the sessions on the connection were acquired before the date of expiration, and have remained acquired. Hence, you see the effect of an expiring session key only when the connection (or session) is acquired.

Note: No warning messages are produced stating that the session key is about to expire. However, an SMF record can be written when a key is used that will expire shortly. Therefore, you can use the RACF Report Writer regularly to find out which keys need maintenance. Otherwise, if expiring session keys are used, you must remember when the keys are due to expire. You must also take appropriate action to minimize any disruption that may occur because the connection is unavailable because of an expired session key. For example, you should plan for the changing of the session keys, for security rebuilds (for both CICS systems) and for the possibility of having to reacquire the connection.

You can avoid the problem of APPC profiles becoming invalid while the connection is in use by specifying AUTOCONNECT(YES) or AUTOCONNECT(ALL) on the SESSIONS definition. This causes all sessions to be established (acquired) when the connection is acquired.