When you use CICS® Configuration Manager to
work with resource definitions, rather than referring explicitly to
the CSD file or the CICSPlex® SM context that contains
the resource definitions, you refer to the name of a CICS configuration.
A CICS configuration is a record in the CICS Configuration Manager repository that
refers to a CSD file, a context, or an export file. Using CICS configurations:
- Insulates you from the differences between CSD files and contexts.
This allows you to work with resource definitions without needing
to know how or where they are stored.
- Enables you to change the data set name of a CSD file, or the
location of a context, without interrupting workflow in CICS Configuration Manager. For example, if
you upgrade to a new version of CICS,
and this involves changing the data set names of your CSD files, then
all you need to do in CICS Configuration Manager is
update the CICS configuration to refer to the new data
set names.
- Enables you to define security rules for accessing resource definitions
based on a CICS configuration name, offering a level of
abstraction from the underlying CSD file or context. If you change
the data set name of a CSD file, or the location of a context, you
do not need to update the rules. For details, see Restricting access to API commands and resource definitions.
Figure 1. CICS configurations:
a common interface to CSD files and CICSPlex SM
data repositories

- 1
- You instruct CICS Configuration Manager to copy a resource
definition between any combination of two CICS configurations.
For example:
- Two CSD files
- A CSD file and a context
- Two contexts in different data repositories
- Two contexts in the same data repository
- 2
- CICS Configuration Manager handles
underlying differences between CICS configurations,
using proven updating methods:

- To update resource definitions stored in CSD files, CICS Configuration Manager uses one of the
following methods, depending on the release of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS® that the CICS Configuration Manager server is running
under:
- CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V4.1,
or earlier: CICS Configuration Manager uses
the CICS-supplied DFHEDAP program
- From CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V4.2: CICS Configuration Manager uses CICS system
programming interface (SPI) commands
- To update resource definitions stored in CICSPlex SM
data repositories, CICS Configuration Manager uses
the CICSPlex SM application programming interface
(API).
CICS configurations as offline staging areas
The CSD file or context that a CICS configuration
refers to does not need to be associated with an active CICS system.
It may be merely a staging area for resource definition requests from
application developers. These requests may be migrated, after approval,
to active test CICS systems. In this way, CICS administrators
can control the definition of resources across all CICS systems.