Inter transaction affinity

An inter transaction affinity is an affinity between two or more CICS® transactions. It is caused by the transactions using techniques to pass information between one another, or to synchronize activity between one another, in a way that requires the transactions to execute in the same CICS region.

Inter-transaction affinities, which impose restrictions on the dynamic routing of transactions, can occur in the following circumstances:
  • One transaction terminates, leaving “state data” in a place that a second transaction can access only by running in the same CICS region as the first transaction.
  • One transaction creates data that a second transaction accesses while the first transaction is still running. To ensure safe working, the first transaction usually waits on an event, which the second transaction posts when it has read the data created by the first transaction. This synchronization technique requires that both transactions are routed to the same CICS region.