Benefits

CICS® Configuration Manager offers the following benefits:

A single point of control for resource definitions across your enterprise
From a single TSO/ISPF session, you can change resource definitions in any CSD file or CICSPlex® SM context that is accessible to CICS Configuration Manager.
A common interface to CSD files and CICSPlex SM contexts
In CICS Configuration Manager, you define a CICS configuration for each CSD file or CICSPlex SM context that you want to manage. Thereafter, you refer only to the CICS configuration; CICS Configuration Manager transparently handles the differences between CSD files and CICSPlex SM contexts.
Enhanced editing of resource definitions, using a TSO/ISPF interface
The resource definition editor provided by CICS Configuration Manager has many advantages over the resource definition online (RDO) CEDA transaction provided by CICS. For example:
  • Edit resource definitions while the CICS regions that use those definitions are active or inactive.
  • Edit RDO definitions in CSD files or BAS definitions in CICSPlex SM data repositories.
  • Get extensive field-sensitive help for all resource definition attributes.
  • View, compare, and recover historical versions of resource definitions.
  • Filter resource definitions using a combination of criteria: list, group, type, and name; attribute values; and similarities between resource definitions (for example, to identify duplicates).
  • Explore the logical hierarchy of a CICS configuration. For example, you can expand a CICS configuration to show its lists (or ResDescs, for CICSPlex SM); expand a list to show its groups (or ResGroups); expand a group to show its resource definitions; and expand a resource definition to show its attributes.
Figure 1. Expanding a CICS configuration hierarchy
Copy a set of resource definitions across multiple CICS configurations with a single command
In CICS Configuration Manager, you can define one or more pairs of source and target ("from" and "to") CICS configurations as a migration scheme, and you can group resource definitions into a change package. With a single command, you can migrate a change package according to a migration scheme, copying or moving a set of resource definitions across multiple CICS configurations, regardless of whether the CICS configurations refer to CSD files or contexts. You can also back out (undo) a migration with a single command.
Transform resource definitions during migration
For each pair of source and target CICS configurations in a migration scheme, you can select a set of transformation rules. These rules can adjust a resource definition during migration to match its target environment.

For example, if a resource definition in your development environment specifies a file as SYSDEV.VSAM.FILEA, but the same file in the test environment is named SYSTEST.VSAM.FILEA, then you can define a rule to transform file names that match the mask *DEV.* to *TEST.*.

You can also use transformation rules to search and replace within a single CICS configuration, by using a migration scheme with the same source and target CICS configuration.

You can specify criteria that limit the resource definitions to which a transformation rule applies. You can also specify processing options for a rule, to allow or disallow further rules to be applied, or to exclude certain resource definitions from migration.

Detect unexpected changes to resource definitions
Before migrating a change package, you must mark it as "ready", indicating that you want no further edits to its resource definitions prior to migration.

If you attempt to migrate or install a change package that is marked as "ready", but the resource definitions in the source CICS configurations have subsequently changed, or the migration scheme has changed, then CICS Configuration Manager does not allow the migration. This protects you from migrating unexpected changes.

Optionally: require approval before migrating
You can associate an approval profile with each change package, reflecting its sensitivity or potential impact (such as minor, major, or emergency). An approval profile specifies up to five approver roles for each migration scheme, identifying the types of user (such as developer, tester, or manager) who must approve a change package before it can be migrated. In addition to being marked as ready, each change package must be approved by all of the applicable approver roles before it can be migrated.
Report resource definitions that match specified criteria
Select from a set of predefined criteria, such as "transactions using program name" (where all you have to specify is the program name), or define your own combination of criteria.
Compare resource definitions
Compare resource definitions from one or more CICS configurations, filtered by name, type, and group. For each resource definition, the comparison shows a checksum of predetermined attribute values. Identical checksums indicate identical attribute values; different checksums indicate that some attribute values are different.

If you notice that two resource definitions have different checksums, then you can select the resource definitions, and compare their attribute values side-by-side, with differences highlighted.

Figure 2. Compare resource definitions side-by-side
Undo or redo changes to resource definitions
Whenever you use CICS Configuration Manager to change (create, update, or delete) a resource definition, CICS Configuration Manager records the change in its journal. For each change, CICS Configuration Manager records the state of the resource definition before the change (before image) and the state after the change (after image). These before/after images are known collectively as historical versions. You can view, compare, and recover historical versions. You can recover historical versions individually, or you can specify criteria to identify a set of changes, and then either reinstate the before images (to undo the changes) or the after images (to redo the changes).
Figure 3. CICS Configuration Manager records resource definition changes in a journal
Report changes to resource definitions: what, when, who, how, and why
The CICS Resource Definition Changes Report shows changes to resource definitions that CICS Configuration Manager records in its journal. You can use this report to help audit changes: what resource definitions were changed, including attribute details; when the change occurred; who made the change; and how they made the change, such as by editing the resource definition, or by copying a resource definition, or by migrating a change package. If you use change packages to migrate resource definitions, this report can also help answer why changes were made, based on the change package description ("Payroll updates for tax act") and the migration scheme used ("development to test").
Help answer questions such as: what will be the effect of a cold start?
CICS Configuration Manager batch deployment analysis reports enable you to list or compare sets of installed resource definitions collected from an active CICS region, and sets of resource definitions that CICS would install when cold starting a CICS region. These reports help answer questions such as:
  • What changes will the next cold start introduce?
  • Will adding a new group or list to the installation group sequence create problems at CICS start time?
  • Are my cloned CICS regions the same?
  • Are these resource definitions consistent with one another?

For the last question, CICS Configuration Manager performs a superset of the checks performed by the CICS CEDA CHECK command. In addition to producing a batch report of these checks, you can perform these checks via the CICS Configuration Manager ISPF dialog, and then interactively explore and solve any issues with the resource definitions.

You can define sets of resource definitions by specifying a group sequence that is similar to the CICS system initialization parameter GRPLIST, but with more flexibility: you can define a combination of lists and individual groups, and you can combine these with resource definitions from a CICSPlex SM data repository. This enables you to easily and quickly simulate different scenarios, such as the effect of changes to the group sequence at CICS start time, without making those changes to running CICS systems.

Integrate CICS Configuration Manager with your own applications
Batch and SOAP interfaces allow you to use the features of CICS Configuration Manager in your own applications.

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Timestamp icon Last updated: Friday, 8 February 2013


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