Scope: All US based SMCs and supported client data centers.
Effective Date: September 9,2016
Group Name: U.S. Leveraged Mainframe – CICS Support
Affected Locations: Auburn Hills, AVON, Cherokee, Charlotte, Dallas, Greenville, Mingo, Nissan, Plano, Sao Paulo, Tulsa and XPO complexes.
Summary: CICS Transaction Server 5.2 will be the next version of CICS Transaction Server to become the standard software offering by HPES.
Justification: The current standard offering by HPES of CICS Transaction Server, release 4.2, was released in 2011 and goes out of support on September 30th, 2018. Since then IBM has released TS 5.1 and TS 5.2, each with new and improved functionality. Upgrading now will allow users to exploit newer technologies not available in Transaction Server 4.2 and will ensure continued software currency for years to come.
Benefit to Users: The following are some of the new release highlights:
SCALABILITY: Application level access to 64-bit storage from Assembler programs. Reduced 24-bit (below the line) storage requirements will help to reduce Short on Storage (SOS) occurrences.
Several CICS facilities now make use of 64-bit storage (above the bar) which will reduce Short on Storage (SOS) possibilities for 31-bit storage. The maximum number of user tasks that can co-exist in a region has been doubled.
PERFORMANCE: Increased threadsafe capability and optimized TCB usage which will result in greater throughput with lower CPU usage.
JAVA: Java 7 support will allow easier writing and optimization of Java code. Java programs can access JDBC and SQLJ from a T8 TCB which can provide significant performance improvements.
CLOUD ENABLEMENT: Enhanced application lifecycle management. Multiple application versions are able to run concurrently. Simplification of application deployment updates and rollbacks. The number of traditional CICS resources which can be defined and managed in CICS bundles has been doubled.
SECURITY: Stronger cryptographic ciphers including support for Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2. CICS TS SSL now supports the SHA-256 hashing algorithm. New support for Kerberos security tokens is also available.
Details:
Affected sites should ensure that locally supported products are compatible with CICS Transaction Server 5.2. The timeline for implementation of Transaction Server 5.2 is 3Q 2016 through 4Q 2017.
Twenty seven CICS regions were upgraded to CICS Transaction Server 5.2 as part of the BETA, including 14 Production regions.
Where to find additional information:
A more in depth description of capabilities introduced by Transaction Server 5.1 and 5.2 may be obtained from IBM documents:
CICS TS for z/OS V5.1
What’s New - http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGMCP_5.1.0/com.ibm.cics.ts.whatsnew.doc/topics/dfhe4_whatsnew.html%23whatsnew
CICS TS for z/OS V5.2
What’s New: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGMCP_5.2.0/com.ibm.cics.ts.whatsnew.doc/topics/dfhe4_whatsnew.html%23whatsnew
Primary Contact: Michael Massura 404 648 9201
michael.massura@hpe.com
Secondary Contact: Eric M Gillespie 404 648 9966
eric.gillespie@hpe.com
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Usercomm - CICS TS R5.2 Upgrade Information