Configuring a CICS DA system connection

CICS® Deployment Assistant uses several types of connections to access the CICS DA host component: an FTP connection, CMCI or CICSPlex® SM data interface connections, and HTTP connections. In configuring the CICS DA system connection, you provide details about the connection, credentials, type of FTP connection (implicit or explicit), and other related details.

Before you begin

Ensure that you understand your CICS DA system connection details, that you have the correct level of authorization to connect to your system, and that you are connected to your company network. You must have at least one connection credential before you can configure a CICS DA system connection. A credential is a repository for a user ID and password combination. See Defining connection credentials in the CICS Explorer™ User Guide for more information.

If your system administrator has previously configured CICS DA, you can view the details in the Connections Preferences view.

If CICS DA has not been configured, or you want to add an additional connection, follow the steps in the procedure.

Procedure

  1. Click Window > Preferences from the workbench menu bar.
  2. In the Preferences view, expand CICS Explorer and click Connections. The Connections Preferences dialog opens.
  3. Expand Type and select CICS Deployment Assistant.
    Connections Preferences view showing a CICS DA connection that was previously configured.
  4. Click New and complete the fields with the details provided by your system administrator. The following table provides a description of the fields:
    Option Description
    Type The type of connection. For a CICS DA connection, this is CICS Deployment Assistant.
    Name The local name that is used to identify this connection. You can use any name that will help you distinguish between different connections.
    Host name The TCP/IP name of the server that is running the CICS DA active spool component. The host name is usually also the host name that is used for FTP when you select Default connection (port 21) in the FTP Connection field.
    Port number The port number of the CICS DA active spool component.

    The CICS DA active spool component typically runs in a CICSPlex SM web user interface (WUI) server; therefore, for CICS TS 4.1 users, this port number matches the CMCIPORT CICSPlex SM WUI initialization parameter of the WUI server. For previous CICS releases, or if the CICS DA active spool component is not installed in a WUI server, the port number is the TCPIPSERVICE that you or your system administrator set up while manually configuring the CICS DA active spool component.

    Credentials Your credential for the system. If you do not have a credential defined for this connection, click the Credentials hyperlink to open the Credentials window, and define a credential.
  5. Select the System tab and complete the fields:
    Option Description
    FTP Connection The default FTP connection (Default connection (port 21)) or the name of an FTP connection that you create. By default, CICS DA automatically uses an implicit FTP connection based on port 21 to the host specified on the DA Connection setting, using the same credentials as the DA connection. If you do not select the default, you must create an FTP connection and specify the name of that connection here. You might do this if you want to use a different set of credentials for the FTP connection than for the CICS connection, or if you have different security options.
    JES Member Name The 4-character JES member name of the system you are connecting to.
    z/OS® Console The 2- to 8-character name of the console, based on your user ID, that is unique to the sysplex. For example, TSO/SDSF users with a console name of their TSO user ID must use a different console name for CICS DA. Using a different console name to the TSO console name means that you can use both TSO and CICS DA at the same time.

    The first character must be alphabetic, #, $, or @.

    Some console names are reserved; see Reserved Console Names.

    CICS DA HLQ The high-level qualifiers (HLQs) of the CICS DA host data sets that are installed on the MVS™ system. For example, if you install CICS DA into 'CICSDA.V110.SCPHLOAD' and 'CICSDA.V110.SCPHAUTH' you would specify CICSDA.V110 for the CICS DA HLQ.
    Notes:
    • Do not surround the CICS DA HLQ with quotation marks; also, you do not need a trailing period on the data set name.
    • If you have a different HLQ for the SCPHLOAD and SCPHAUTH data sets (using our example), you must configure an alias so that both data sets can be reached with the same HLQ.
  6. Select the Job Card tab and complete the fields:
    A screen capture showing the Timeout tab fields
    Option Description
    Job Card A typical MVS job card. The job name sets the job name prefix. All CICS DA jobs are short-running tasks, so the Class used should be appropriate. When a CICS DA job completes successfully, the output is automatically purged by the CICS DA client. Do not use a MSGCLASS parameter that causes output to be purged automatically at job completion.
    Job Name prefix The job name prefix for jobs that are generated by CICS DA. CICS DA sets the value of this field, based on the job name specified on the job card.
  7. Select the Timeout tab and complete the fields:
    A screen capture showing the Timeout tab fields
    Option Description
    Job retry count The number of attempts to fetch the job output before failing.
    Job retry delay The delay in milliseconds before the attempt to fetch the job output is retried.
    MVS command timeout The timeout value in seconds for MVS commands.
    Note: If you receive timeout errors when fetching job output you can increase these values
  8. Click Apply to save the configuration. Alternatively, you can click Cancel to cancel the process and close the Preferences view without saving the new connection.

Results

If you save the connection, you can click OK to close the Preferences view and connect later. Alternatively, you can click Connect to connect to the host server and CICS DA tries to connect to the system you have configured. The Signon dialog opens and you must confirm or enter your password. With an active system connection, you can view the system log and perform discovery. If the connection fails, an error message is displayed in the Connections Preferences view.