Using CICS Explorer
These tasks illustrate how you can set up and use the
CICS Explorer®
to manage your CICSplex.
Using CICS Explorer perspectives
A perspective is a modifiable screen layout that allows you to view information relating to a system or product. Different perspectives contain different sets of views, which are displays of specific CICS® data that relates to the current context or scope. You can customize your perspective by adding, removing, or moving the views in it. CICS Explorer provides some default perspectives, including
CICS Cloud
,
CICS SM
, and
SM Administration
.
Viewing CICS resources
A CICS resource view provides information about resources in the connected CICS region or CICSplex. You can customize the layout of a resource view to show the data in a way that suits your business needs. Related views are grouped into
tab groups
, and each tab group is contained in a
pane
in the workbench window. When multiple views are present in a pane, they are stacked behind each other.
Changing CICS resources and definitions
You can change CICS resources and definitions in the
CICS Explorer
resource editor, which opens in a separate tab group called the
editor area
.
Working with resources
These example tasks illustrate how you can manage resources using the
CICS Explorer
. You must be connected to a
CICS Transaction Server
for z/OS®
version 4 or later to edit or perform actions against resources. CICS and CICSPlex® SM resources are displayed in resource views. Each resource view displays a single type of resource, for example the File view displays only file resources and the Program Definition view displays only program definition resources.
Working with Atom feeds
CICS can serve Atom feeds to web clients. The Atom feeds consist of data that is supplied by CICS resources or application programs. When you expose a CICS resource or application program as an Atom feed or collection, users can read and update the data by making HTTP requests from external client applications, such as feed readers or Web mashup applications.
Working with bundles
You can use bundles to deploy applications, events, policy, and Atom feeds to your CICS systems.
CICS bundles
are a unit of deployment for CICS resources that you want to manage together in a CICS region.
Management bundles
group related CICS bundles together for deployment and management in a CICSplex. Management bundles are installed in a CMAS, and the associated CICS bundles are installed in the CICS regions across the targeted CICSplex (or platform). You can create management bundles for an application or a platform.
Working with events
The process of specifying business events has a natural workflow, from business manager to application analyst, application programmer, and IT architect. You use the
Event binding editor
to create an event binding that specifies the business events. The event binding specifies the events you want CICS to produce. You can use the CICS event binding editor to create, edit and deploy event bindings.
Working with platforms and applications
You can use the CICS Cloud perspective and the Cloud Explorer view to work with platforms and applications in CICS.
Working with policies
A policy contains policy rules that trigger a predefined action when the specified condition is met. To create a policy, you must define the rules, and package the policy in a CICS bundle. One or more policies can be included in a CICS bundle project. You can then deploy the policy in the bundle to a CICS platform or CICS application, or deploy it into a
single CICS region
. By packaging your policy in a bundle, you can deploy your policies as a single entity to CICS, making it easier to update and manage the policies in CICS.
How to use security request recording
The security request recording facility, also known as SRR, can help diagnose CICS security issues. SRR extends the assistance that some messages provide by recording security data so that you can better understand security issues that you might encounter in CICS.
Managing workloads
You can use CICS Explorer for some aspects of CICSPlex SM workload management. Use the WLM operation views and editors to show details of active workloads, including target regions, transaction groups, and affinities. Use the WLM specification view and editor to create and manage WLM specifications.
Starting CICS Explorer with customizations
Customizing your CICS Explorer
You can customize CICS Explorer through advanced tasks, for example, controlling access to a
CICS Explorer
function, configuring the online help, changing the language, starting another instance of
CICS Explorer
, switching the workspace, and updating and installing software.
Related information
Working with data sets
Using the IBM z/OS Management Facility
Working with z/OS UNIX files