CICS4

IBM ^
Introduction to CICS Transaction Server
for OS/390 – Unit 4
© 2004 IBM Corporation

IBM ^
Unit 4: CICS intercommunication
Topics:
4A. Intercommunication facilities

4B. Interregion and intersystem communication
4C. CICS and the Internet

IBM ^
Unit 4 overview
Many organizations have resources such as terminals, application

programs, and data spread out over one or more systems or CICSPlex
setups.
CICS TS for OS/390 supplies several facilities to allow you to access

CICS resources across a CICSPlex, over an intranet, or over the
Internet. This unit describes these facilities and the advantages that they
offer. It also introduces several products that provide a range of options
in configuring a CICS setup for Web browser access.

IBM ^
Unit 4 objectives
This is what you should be able to do upon completing this unit:
Describe the intercommunication facilities that allow the sharing of

CICS resources across regions and systems
List the advantages of distributing transactions and programs
across regions and systems
Identify the applications of multiregion operation in CICS TS for
OS/390
Describe the possible system configurations for setting up
intersystem communication
List and describe the facilities available in CICS TS for OS/390 for
making CICS available over the Internet or an intranet

IBM ^
4A. Intercommunication facilities
In previous units, you learned that every CICS setup controls its own
resources, such as files, terminals and local application programs.
However, through CICS intercommunication facilities, a CICS system
can establish links to other systems and gain access to remote
resources. Such intercommunication permits the sharing of resources
and transferring of data across several systems.
CICS employs these methods for communicating between systems:

Function shipping
Asynchronous processing
Transaction routing
Distributed program link (DPL)
Distributed transaction programming

IBM ^
4A. Function shipping
Function shipping allows multiple systems to share resources such as

files, temporary storage or application programs. When function
shipping is used, a program is invoked in a local CICS system and
accesses resources owned by a remote system. The program operates
as though the resources are resident on the local system.
Access gained through function shipping allows both reading from and
writing to the resource, as well as restarting and recovery operations.

IBM ^
In developing applications,
CICS systems programmers
can specify that a required
resource is not located on the
local or requesting system,
but on a remote or owning
system.

IBM ^
When a file-control command is

issued for a resource, first the
EXEC interface program
determines where the resource
is located.

IBM ^

If the resource is on another system,
the request is passed to the owning
system.
The owning system runs the request
in a mirror transaction, a local re-
creation of the original request.
Application programs can use EXEC
CICS commands to perform
These function shipping operations:
Shipping file control requests to another
CICS system
Shipping transient data and temporary
storage requests to another CICS
system for data transfer
Initiating transactions in another CICS
or IMS system by shipping START
commands (called asynchronous
processing)

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Once the request is completed,

a reply is sent back to the
originating CICS system.

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Some transactions that involve function shipping:
EXEC CICS READ FILE (‘RFILE’) – A simple read request is passed

from one CICS system to another and returned.
EXEC CICS READ UPDATE FILE – A request to read file updates is

passed from one CICS system to another and returned.
EXEC CICS REWRITE FILE – A request to rewrite a remote file is

passed from one CICS system to another.

IBM ^
Asynchronous processing is a type of function shipping where a

transaction is initiated in a remote CICS system by shipping an EXEC
CICS START request to a remote system.
The processing is asynchronous because the performance of the

request on the remote system proceeds independently of any
implementation on the initiating system. To return a reply when the
transaction is completed, the remote system can initiate a transaction in
the local system.

IBM ^
4A. Transaction routing
Another type of intercommunication in CICS is transaction routing,

which allows terminals connected to one CICS system to run
transactions within a remote CICS system. This means that you can
distribute terminals and transactions throughout a network of systems
and still have the ability to run any transaction from any terminal.

IBM ^
4A. Distributed program link
Distributed program link (DPL)

enables a CICS program to call a
program on a remote system or
CICS region.
The DPL exploits the LINK

command by allowing the linking
and linked-to application to reside
in different systems or regions.
This potentially reduces the
number of data transfers between
systems, thus improving
performance.

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4A. Distributed program link

IBM ^
4A. Distributed transaction processing
Distribution transaction
processing (DTP) is the
distribution of transaction
functions over several programs
within a network of systems.
Application programs involving

DTP are complex to develop
because they are able to
initiate and control their own
intercommunication between
transactions.

IBM ^
DTP differs from the other

intercommunication facilities
discussed thus far in that it
employs synchronous processing.
The communication is dynamic,

and not predefined by transaction
definitions. However, transactions
in DTP are designed to
communicate with other
transactions as efficiently as
possible.

IBM ^
In large or high-traffic Parallel Sysplex setups, complex CICS

innovations such as DTP serve to reduce the potential problems
associated with simpler, more transparent and slower transaction
facilities.
DTP serves to streamline and synchronize transactions, and allows

complex programming conversations between CICS systems. This
helps to prevent heavy system use from resulting in sluggish
performance or system errors.

IBM ^
DTP is not suited to all systems.
For smaller and less heavily used

systems, DTP might not be
necessary. The complexity of DTP
might demand too much technical
expertise to set up and maintain it
in some user environments.

IBM ^
4B. Multiregion operation
CICS multiregion operation (MRO)

enables CICS systems that are
running in the same OS/390 system
or within a Parallel Sysplex setup to
communicate with each other.
MRO does not enable communication

between a CICS setup and a non-
CICS system, such as an IMS or DB2
system.
MRO provides all five of the

intercommunication facilities listed at
the right.

IBM ^
These are some of the uses of

multiregion operation (MRO):
Program development
Providing reliable database access
Setting up department-specific
regions
Multiprocessing

IBM ^
MRO allows for easy and risk-free

testing of newly written applications
by making it possible to set up a
separate CICS system that is
designated specifically for testing.

IBM ^

MRO allows you to set up your system to
reduce the possibility that unreliable
applications will disable the system or
other applications. You can also use it
to increase the reliability of database
access.
You could divide your system into multiple

regions, dedicating one region to less
reliable applications, and thus separating
them from more reliable applications. The
applications in one region can still access
resources in other regions through
interregion communications (IRC).
To increase the reliability of database

access, you can designate a database-
owning region that contains no user
applications, and thus might not be subject
to the effects of an unstable application.

IBM ^
MRO allows you to set up a

CICSPlex where each department
of an organization has its own
CICS system. IRC allows one
department to access another
department’s resources and data.
With transaction routing, any

terminal can run a transaction on
any system. Thus, terminals do
not need to be designated as
belonging to a specific department.

IBM ^
4B. Intersystem communication
Intersystem communication (ISC)

is the communication between a
CICS system and another system
or set of systems that are
networked together.
Communication between systems

in ISC uses the telecommunication
protocols of Systems Network
Architecture (SNA).

IBM ^
4B. Intersystem communication
There are three basic ways in which subsystems can be connected for
intersystem communication:
ISC within a single operating system

ISC between physically adjacent operating systems
ISC between physically remote operating systems
Communication can take place between CICS and non-CICS systems.

For example, intersystem communication can take place between a
CICS Transaction Server for OS/390 system and an IMS system.
Intersystem communication can make use of the same facilities as

MRO, including function shipping, transaction routing, DLP and DTP.

IBM ^
4C. CICS from a browser
CICS TS for OS/390 provides you

with the facilities for making
transaction-processing services
available over the Internet or an
intranet.
There are several different means

by which a client application
program or an Internet browser
can communicate with CICS and
request CICS services.

IBM ^
Web browsers can communicate

directly with CICS application
programs without an intermediate
gateway or Web server through
CICS Web support (CWS).

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Instead of accessing CICS directly

through CWS, you can also
access CICS services through a
server on the OS/390 platform.
For example, you can obtain a

secure connection with CICS
through an IBM WebSphere
Application Server for OS/390.

IBM ^
You can also access CICS TS for

OS/390 via a non-OS/390 Web
server that is connected via a
network.
Communicating with CICS in this

way uses the External CICS
Interface (EXCI). EXCI is a form of
function shipping, where the
incoming request is processed by
a mirror transaction in the linked-
to system.

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Another way to access CICS from

a Web browser is through the CICS
Transaction Gateway.
The CICS Transaction Gateway

uses the CICS External Call
Interface (EXCI) to pass requests
to CICS.

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4C. CICS Transaction Gateway
IBM’s CICS Transaction Gateway for OS/390 provides a set of Java-

based Web server facilities allowing access to CICS applications from a
Web browser.
These facilities include:
A JavaGateway application that interfaces with CICS applications

running on CICS servers. This communication takes place through the
CICS External Call Interface (EXCI).
A CICS Java class library that provides an application programming

interface (API), and facilitates communication between the gateway
application and a Java application or applet.

IBM ^
The Java classes and JavaBeans

supplied by CICS Transaction
Gateway allow you to write Java
Web server code to handle
browser requests for CICS
services.
You can also use these facilities

to code applets.

IBM ^
One of the Java classes included

in the CICS Java class library is
the JavaGateway class, which is
used to establish communication
with the gateway process.
Another class, the ECIRequest

class, is used to specify external
call interface (ECI) calls.

IBM ^

The steps involved in accessing
CICS using the CICS Transaction
Gateway from a Web browser:
1. Browser calls a Web server

using HTTP to get HTML pages.
2. Browser finds an applet tag for
the applet that will communicate
with CICS, and calls Web server to
get the applet and classes that it
requires.
3. After the browser receives an
applet, it runs the applet.

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4.The implemented applet creates a

JavaGateway object, which calls
the CICS Transaction Gateway for
OS/390.
The applet also creates an

ECIRequest object to represent its
request for a CICS program.

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5.The ECIRequest object is passed

to the gateway, which then calls
the CICS program.
6.When the program is finished, the

results are returned to the
browser by way of the gateway.

IBM ^
4C. CICS Web Interface
The CICS Web support (CWS)

is a set of CICS services that
support direct access to CICS
from a Web browser over a
TCP/IP connection.
CWS allows customers to use

the transaction processing
facilities of CICS for
transactions conducted over
the Internet without an
intermediate gateway to
separate Web server.

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4C. CICS Web Interface
With CICS you can build CICS

HTML application utilities and
provide Internet or intranet access
to CICS without a Web server.
However, the facilities provided by

CWS do not replace those
performed by a Web server. You
should use a separate server if
you need facilities that provide
GIFs, applets, or other items that
might be referenced from the
CICS pages.

IBM ^
4C. CICS Web interface

CWS accepts two types of requests:
Requests from Web browsers
connected via a TCP/IP port that is
designated for CWS
Requests from Web browsers
connected to IBM WebSphere
Application Server for OS/390.
With CICS you can build application
utilities and provide Internet or intranet
access to CICS without a Web server.
However, the facilities provided by CWS
do not replace those performed by a
Web server. You should use a separate
server if you need facilities that provide
GIFs, applets, or other items that may be
referenced from the CICS pages.

IBM ^
4C. CICS Web interface

For requests from Web browsers
connected via a TCP/IP port that is
designated fro CWS, a user-replaceable
application translates the HTTP request
into a request for CICS transaction
processing services.
For requests from Web browsers

connected to IBM WebSphere Application
Server for OS/390, A CICS-supplied
WebServer plug-in operating within the
server relates the HTTP request to the
transaction processing services.

IBM ^
Unit 4 summary
This is what you learned in this unit:
MRO allows communication between different CICS regions within a

single system or CICSPlex.
ISC connects separate systems, including non-CICS systems, for

intercommunication.
CICS TS for OS/390 provides five facilities for intercommunication:

function shipping, asynchronous processing, transaction routing, DPL
and DTP.
(continued)

IBM ^
Unit 4 summary
Intercommunication permits the sharing of resources across systems

and regions.
All five types of intercommunication are available in both MRO and

ISC setups.
There are several possibilities for making CICS transaction

processing services available over the Internet or an intranet: CICS
Web Support provides access to CICS with or without an intermediate
Web server or gateway; CICS Transaction Gateway serves as an
intermediary between CICS and a Web browser.

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IBM ^

Introduction to CICS Transaction Server

for OS/390 – Unit 4

© 2004 IBM Corporation

Unit 4: CICS intercommunication

4A. Intercommunication facilities

© 2004 IBM Corporation

Many organizations have resources such as terminals, application

CICS TS for OS/390 supplies several facilities to allow you to access

© 2004 IBM Corporation

This is what you should be able to do upon completing this unit:

Describe the intercommunication facilities that allow the sharing of

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Intercommunication facilities

CICS employs these methods for communicating between systems:

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Function shipping

Function shipping allows multiple systems to share resources such as

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Function shipping

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Function shipping

When a file-control command is

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Function shipping

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Function shipping

Once the request is completed,

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Function shipping

Some transactions that involve function shipping:

EXEC CICS READ FILE (‘RFILE’) – A simple read request is passed

EXEC CICS READ UPDATE FILE – A request to read file updates is

EXEC CICS REWRITE FILE – A request to rewrite a remote file is

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Function shipping

Asynchronous processing is a type of function shipping where a

The processing is asynchronous because the performance of the

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Transaction routing

Another type of intercommunication in CICS is transaction routing,

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Distributed program link

Distributed program link (DPL)

The DPL exploits the LINK

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Distributed program link

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Distributed transaction processing

Application programs involving

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Distributed transaction processing

DTP differs from the other

The communication is dynamic,

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Distributed transaction processing

In large or high-traffic Parallel Sysplex setups, complex CICS

DTP serves to streamline and synchronize transactions, and allows

© 2004 IBM Corporation

4A. Distributed transaction processing

DTP is not suited to all systems.

For smaller and less heavily used

© 2004 IBM Corporation