This IBM Redbooks® publication gives a broad understanding of several important concepts that are used when describing IBM CICS Transaction Server (TS) for IBM z/OS (CICS TS) performance. This publication also describes many of the significant performance improvements that can be realized by upgrading your environment to the most recent release of CICS TS. This book targets the following audience: Systems Architects wanting to understand the performance characteristics and capabilities of a specific CICS TS release. Capacity Planners and Performance Analysts wanting to understand how an upgrade to the latest release of CICS TS affects their environment. Application Developers wanting to design and code highly optimized applications for deployment into a CICS TS environment. This book covers the following topics: A description of the factors that are involved in the interaction between IBM z® Systems hardware and a z/OS software environment. A definition of key terminology that is used when describing the results of CICS TS performance benchmarks. A presentation of how to collect the required data (and the methodology used) when applying Large Scale Performance Reference (LSPR) capacity information to a CICS workload in your environment. An outline of the techniques that are applied by the CICS TS performance team to achieve consistent and accurate performance benchmark results. High-level descriptions of several key workloads that are used to determine the performance characteristics of a CICS TS release. An introduction to the open transaction environment and task control block (TCB) management logic in CICS TS, including a reference that describes how several configuration attributes combine to affect the behavior of the CICS TS dispatcher. Detailed information that relates to changes in performance characteristics between successive CICS TS releases, covering comparisons that relate to CICS TS V4.2, V5.1, V5.2, V5.3, V5.4, and V5.5. The results of several small performance studies to determine the cost of using a specific CICS functional area.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication focuses on developing Web service applications in IBM CICS®. It takes the broad view of developing and modernizing CICS applications for XML, Web services, SOAP, and SOA support, and lays out a reference architecture for developing these kinds of applications. We start by discussing Web services in general, then review how CICS implements Web services. We offer an overview of different development approaches: bottom-up, top-down, and meet-in-the-middle. We then look at how you would go about exposing a CICS application as a Web service provider, again looking at the different approaches. The book then steps through the process of creating a CICS Web service requester. We follow this by looking at CICS application aggregation (including 3270 applications) with IBM Rational® Application Developer for IBM System z® and how to implement CICS Web Services using CICS Cloud technology. The first part is concluded with hints and tips to help you when implementing this technology. Part two of this publication provides performance figures for a basic Web service. We investigate some common variables and examine their effects on the performance of CICS as both a requester and provider of Web services.

Significant performance benefits can be realized by increasing the amount of memory that is assigned to various functions in the IBM® z/OS® software stack, operating system, and middleware products. IBM DB2® and IBM MQ buffer pools, dump services, and large page usage are just a few of the functions whose ease of use and performance can be improved when more memory is made available to them. The following benefits can realized: Reduced I/O operations Reduced CPU usage Improved transaction response time Potential cost reductions Although the magnitude of these improvements can vary widely based on several factors, including potential I/Os to be eliminated, resource contention, workload, configuration, and tuning, clients must carefully consider whether their environment can benefit from the addition of memory to the software functions that are described in this IBM RedpaperTM publication. This paper describes the performance implications of increasing memory in the following areas: DB2 buffer pools DB2 tuning IBM Cognos® Dynamic Cubes MDM with larger DB2 buffer pools Java heaps and Garbage Collection tuning and Java large page use MQ v8 64-bit buffer pool tuning Enabling more in-memory use by IBM CICS® without paging TCP/IP FTP DFSort I/O reduction Fixed pages and fixed large pages

This IBM® Redbooks® publication covers the background and implementation of the IBM CICS® asynchronous API, which is a simple, accessible API that is designed to enable CICS application developers to create efficient asynchronous programs in all CICS-supported languages. Using the API, application developers can eliminate the overhead that is involved in coding and managing homegrown asynchronous solutions, instead using a set of CICS-supported API commands to underpin CICS applications, which are more responsive and robust than ever. Initially, the book reviews the history and motivations of asynchronous processing in computing and the benefits involved when calling external services. It then introduces the asynchronous API itself and its commands. It also provides a range of scenarios, including sample code, that cover everything from the basics of making an asynchronous request to updating existing synchronous program calls, with the goal of illustrating how to harness the CICS asynchronous API to solve real business problems. Later chapters take a deeper dive into the capabilities of the asynchronous API for advanced use cases. Beyond application development, CICS provides a complete solution for system programmers to manage and monitor asynchronous business logic. Thus, the final chapters of this book cover enhancements to CICS monitoring, statistics, trace, and dumps. Using supporting CICS tooling, system programmers have greater insight than ever, with improved transaction tracking capabilities and CICS policies to provide maximum control and optimization of asynchronous processing in CICS environments.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication discusses the need to monitor and measure different workloads, especially mobile workloads. It introduces the workload classification capabilities of IBM z SystemsTM platforms and helps you to understand how recent enhancements to IBM MVSTM Workload Management (WLM) and other IBM software products can be used to measure the processor cost of mobile workloads. This paper looks at how mobile-initiated and other transactions in IBM CICS®, IMSTM, DB2®, and WebSphere® Application Server can be "tagged and tracked" using WLM. For each of these subsystems, the options for classifying mobile requests and using WLM to measure mobile workloads are reviewed. A scenario is considered in which a bank is witnessing a significant growth in mobile initiated transactions, and wants to monitor and measure the mobile channels more closely. This paper outlines how the bank can use WLM to do this. This publication can help you to configure WLM mobile classification rules. It can also help you to interpret Workload Activity reports from IBM RMFTM Post Processor and to report on the CPU consumption of different workloads, including mobile and public cloud workloads.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication discusses practical uses of the IBM CICS asynchronous API capability. It describes the methodology, design and thought process used by a large client, Walmart, and the considerations of the choices made. The Redbooks publication provides real life examples and application patterns that benefit from the performance and scalability offered by the new API. The book discusses the homegrown methodology used by Walmart before the API was available and compares it with the design using the new API. A discussion of the process used to migrate older applications to begin using the new API is included so the reader will understand the ease of implementing the new API. A description of real world usage patterns describes the current production application Walmart has deployed as well as other patterns to give the reader a sense of what's possible applying creative thinking with technology improvements. Finally, a section is included on the areas to be considered as you begin to plan and implement asynchronous API capabilities. This book should be read by: Enterprise Architects searching for faster ways to service strategic applications across the enterprise. Solution Architects who want to better understand implementation possibilities for improved response times and better performance for CICS applications. CICS programmers looking to modernize and provide improved response times. This book is meant to be used in tandem with IBM Redbooks publication IBM CICS Asynchronous API: Concurrent Processing Made Simple, SG24-8411, which will provide the background and implementation instructions and commands for the API itself.

In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, you will gain an appreciation of the IBM CICS® Transaction Gateway (CICS TG) product suite, based on key criteria, such as capabilities, scalability, platform, CICS server support, application language support, and licensing model. Matching the requirements to available infrastructure and hardware choices requires an appreciation of the choices available. In this book, you will gain an understanding of those choices, and will be capable of choosing the appropriate CICS connection protocol, APIs for the applications, and security options. You will understand the services available to the application developer when using a chosen protocol. You will then learn about how to implement CICS TG solutions, taking advantage of the latest capabilities, such as IPIC connectivity, high availability, and Dynamic Server Selection. Specific scenarios illustrate the usage of CICS TG for IBM z/OS®, and CICS TG for Multiplatforms, with CICS Transaction Server for z/OS and IBM WebSphere® Application Server, including connections in CICS, configuring simple end-to-end connectivity (all platforms) with verification for remote and local mode applications, and adding security, XA support, and high availability.