Scope:
USA, Brazil and Canada based DXC data centers and supported client data centers.
Effective Date:
July 1st, 2019
Group Name:
AMS Leveraged Mainframe CICS Support (USA, Brazil and Canada)
Affected Locations:
USA - Cherokee, Charlotte, Dallas (SYF), Nissan, Plano, Sao Paulo, Tulsa and XPO.
Brazil - Sao Paulo
Canada - MCC, SCC and Calgary
Summary:
CICS Transaction Server 5.4 will be the next version of CICS Transaction Server to
become the standard software offering by DXC.
Justification:
The current standard offering by HPES of CICS Transaction Server, release 5.2, was
released in 2014 and goes out of support on December 31st, 2020. Since then IBM has
released Transaction Server 5.3 and Transaction Server 5.4, each with new and improved
functionality. Upgrading now will allow users to exploit newer technologies not
available in Transaction Server 5.2 and will ensure continued software currency for
years to come.
Benefit to Users:
The following are some of the new release highlights:
Scalability
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o System autoinstall of program definitions for Language Environment
o Management of Db2 threads used by CICS tasks subject to purge or forcepurge requests
New Java capabilities
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o Extends its support for JEE web applications through the WebSphere® Application Server Liberty profile
o Support for Java EE 7 Full Platform
o Enhanced support for IBM SDK, Java Technology Edition Version 8
o Enable CICS programs to invoke a Java EE application
Performance
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o Changes in TCB switching for HTTP requests
o Change in TCB allocation for Liberty threads
o Easier management of logs from JVM server
o More threadsafe commands
o Removal of TCB switch for Java applications that access MQ
Security
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o 3270 Intrusion Detection Service (IDS)
o Support for IBM Health Checker for z/OS
o Secure CICS Explorer sign-in with Multi-Factor Authentication
Details
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Affected sites should ensure that locally supported products are compatible
with CICS Transaction Server 5.4. The timeline for implementation of Transaction
Server 5.4 is 3Q 2019 through 4Q 2020. 11 CICS regions were upgraded to CICS
Transaction Server 5.4 as part of ALPHA & BETA testing, including 2 Production regions.
Where to find additional information
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A more in depth description of capabilities introduced by Transaction
Server 5.3 and 5.4 may be obtained from the following IBM documents:
CICS TS for z/OS V5.3 (this version is being bypassed)
What's New:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGMCP_5.3.0/com.ibm.cics.ts.whatsnew.doc/topics/intro.html
CICS TS for z/OS V5.4
What's New:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGMCP_5.4.0/whats-new/intro.html
Link to find manuals for all supported releases of CICS:
CICS Manuals (IBM has renamed several manuals including application support manuals):
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGMCP_5.4.0/documentation/PDF.html
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Primary Contact - USA and Brazil:
Carlos Nascimento - +55 11 43998238
Secondary Contact - USA and Brazil:
Layane Viana - +55 11 975585619
Primary Contact - Canada:
Paul Haney - 416-471-2416
Secondary Contact - Canada:
Larry McCulley - 416-988-0669
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Usercomm - CICS TS R5.4 Upgrade Information