CICS TS Structure & Problem Analysis

Duration: 5 Days

Method: Instructor led, Hands-on workshops

Price: $3400.00

Course Code: CI5040

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Audience

CICS system programmers and technical support specialists. Experienced application programmers could also benefit from this class providing they are receptive to the idea of having to understand CICS internal structure. We will provide the dumps. The client is also encouraged to supply some of its own dumps for analysis in the classroom.

Description

A discussion of the various types of outages that affect CICS TS normal execution and the tools available to resolve them. This will provide the participant with the debugging skills that are necessary to perform very efficient problem solving.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Describe CICS Architecture and its major components
Name the major control blocks used by CICS
Understand the way a CICS transaction executes in a CICS environment
Understand the Domain environment and describe the major components
Understand CICS message processing and how this can be used to control the dump environment in CICS
Use IPCS as a tool to effectively read CICS dumps and find the cause of a problem
Analyze the various reports provided by the DFHPDxxx verb exit routine
Understand CICS traces and use them as part of your debugging exercise

Prerequisites

Technical programming or CICS system programming.

Topics

I. CICS TS Architecture Review
- Definable Resources - Important parameters that may help in providing a stable environment, a very important factor in supporting production environment. Focus will be on making sure CICS resources are defined in such a way that integrity and stability will be achieved.
- Address Space layout will provide an understanding of where some information can be found
- Domains & TCBs - from a mechanism point of view
- Tasks and Transactions - more importantly, a description of what needs to be in place for transactions to start, execute and terminate properly
II. IPCS, DFHDU700, and DFHTU700 Usage
- Gain basic understanding and usage for the key CICS TS problem determination utilities.
  - IPCS General Usage Overview
  - CICS TS Transaction Dump Processing Utility
  - CICS TS Auxiliary Trace Processing Utility
III. CICS/TS Key Domain and Component Structure
- Dumps are a lot easier once we know where to find the data; this chapter will provide this information. The terminology used in this chapter will be the same terminology used in dumps. This chapter will also provide you with a lot of information on how CICS works internally.
  - A Look at the Kernel Domain (KE) Summary and Control Blocks
  - A Look at the Dispatcher Domain (DS) Summary and Control Blocks
  - A Look at the Transaction Manager (XM) Summary and Control Blocks
  - A Look at the Application Domain (AP) Summary and Control Blocks
  - A Look at the Program Manager Domain (PG) Summary and Control Blocks
  - A Look at Loader Domain (LD) Summary and Control Blocks
IV. CICS TS Trace
- This chapter will describe the format of trace entries, plus look at how trace data can help with problem resolution.
  - System Initialization Options for Trace
  - CETR Transaction to Control Trace
  - A Look at the “OLD” and “NEW” style Trace Formats
  - A Look at Exception Trace Formats
  - A Comparison between Abbreviated, (ABBREV), Short and Full Trace Formats
  - A Look at Waits Occurring in Trace
V. More Domain and Component Structure
- In this chapter, we will cover some additional domains and components and their structure.
  - Db2 Interface (Db2) Component Summary and Control Blocks
  - File Control (FCP) Component Summary and Control Blocks
  - Storage Manager (SM) Domain Summary and Control Blocks
  - Temporary Storage (TS) Domain Summary and Control Blocks
  - Transient Data (TDP) Component Summary and Control Blocks
  - Terminal Control (TCP) Component Summary and Control Blocks
  - Enque (NQ) Domain Summary and Control Blocks
VI. Transaction Dump Analysis
- In this chapter we will discuss and practice how to solve application program related problems using transaction dumps.
  - A Look at the Transaction Dump Format
  - A Look at Some Key Data Areas
  - Working with Program Check Abends
  - Working with Loop Style Abends
  - Finding Data Areas, Based on COBOL Programs
VII. System Level Wait and Performance Aspects
- In this chapter we will discuss and practice how to resolve system stall, wait and performance related problems.
  - A Look at the Characteristics for Stalls and Waits
  - A Look at the Dispatcher Domain Gates and Tokens for Wait States
  - A Look at Various Component and Domain Wait State Indicators
  - A Look at Loops within CICS Regions
  - A Look at Storage Violations within CICS Regions