Before you can view any information, you must establish a connection between CICS Explorer™ and your CICS® systems by providing details about the system connection, its location, and authentication requirements. By default, CICS Explorer attempts to connect using the SSL protocol. If the SSL connection is not successful, the connection will be re-attempted without SSL.
You must define at least one connection credential before you can configure a system connection. See the topic Defining connection credentials for further information.
Before proceeding, ensure that you have all your system connection details, that you have the correct level of authorization to connect to your system, and that you are connected to your company's network. If you are connecting to a CICS version 4 system and you want update capability, the CICS system must be set up to use the CICS management client interface (CMCI). See the topic Setting up the CICS management client interface in the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS® version 4 information center for instructions on how to do this.If your system administrator has preconfigured CICS Explorer, you can view the details in the Connections Preferences view.
If CICS Explorer has not been configured, or you want to add an additional connection, perform these steps:
If the connection is successful, the connection name appears in the connection status bar in the lower right corner of the workbench window next to a green icon to indicate a non-SSL connection, or a padlock to indicate a SSL connection.
If the connection is not successful, a red icon is displayed in the connection status bar in the lower right corner of the workbench window next to the connection name. An error message is displayed at the top of the Connections Preferences view providing a reason for the failure. Check the values in the fields, correct any errors, and click Connect to test the corrections.
When the connection is successful, click OK or Cancel to close the Preferences view.