There are some exciting things happening in the VSE marketplace with IBM's announcement of the release of VSE version 4.2, slated for Spring 2009.  This makes for a busy next few months for everyone - but that's always good for business, right?

We appreciate all of the feedback we have received from everyone so far so please keep the comments and suggestions coming!

We hope you enjoy this week's iTip!

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This Week's iTip!

Really, Really Cold Start CICS

Every once in a while we really, really, do need to COLD start our CICS/TS partitions.  In fact, at one site, we cold start the CICS partitions every weekend after the online Security File backups are done.  In order to do this properly, you need to delete and redefine the CICS/TS Local Catalog, the CICS/TS Global Catalog, and the CICS/TS Restart Data Set.  The job stream below is left in the Power reader queue and released at the end of the Security File Backup jobs via a // PWR R RDR,COLDICCF statement in the JCL.   Keep in mind that CICS/TS is already down when the Security File backup job is run and HAS to be down while this job runs to redefine the catalogs and restart data set.  This job stream is a combination of some of the CICS/TS installation job streams.  I have taken the IDCAMS Delete/Define clusters for CICS.LCD, CICS.GCD, and CICS.RSD and placed them into this job and at the end I have a //PWR R RDR,CICSICCF to bring CICS back up automatically.

* $$ JOB JNM=COLDICCF,CLASS=2,DISP=K,PRI=7

* $$ LST  DISP=D,CLASS=Q                                 

* $$ PUN  DISP=D,CLASS=A                         

// JOB COLDICCF - SET CICSICCF TO COLD START                          

/* *******************************************                         

/*  DEFINE AND INITIALIZE VSAM FILES FOR CICSICCF                     

/* *******************************************                        

// EXEC IDCAMS,SIZE=AUTO                                              

 /*                                                              */   

 /*  DELETE VSAM FILES                                           */   

 /*                                                              */   

     DELETE (CICS.GCD) CL NOERASE PURGE -                          

     CATALOG(VSESP.USER.CATALOG)                                      

     DELETE (CICS.LCD) CL NOERASE PURGE -                         

     CATALOG(VSESP.USER.CATALOG)                                      

     DELETE (CICS.RSD) CL NOERASE PURGE  -                        

     CATALOG(VSESP.USER.CATALOG)                                      

     SET MAXCC = 0                                                    

  /*                                                              */   

  /*  DEFINE VSAM FILES                                           */   

  /*                                                              */   

 DEFINE CLUSTER(NAME(CICS.GCD)            -                       

    RECORDSIZE (4089 4089)                 -                          

    RECORDS (2000 200)                     -                          

    KEYS   (28 0)                          -                          

    REUSE                                  -                         

    INDEXED                                -                         

    FREESPACE (10 10)                      -                         

    SHR(2)                                 -                         

    CISZ(8192)                             -                          

    VOL(DOSRES SYSWK1))                    -                         

    DATA(NAME(CICS.GCD.@D@))              -                      

    INDEX (NAME (CICS.GCD.@I@))           -                      

    CATALOG(VSESP.USER.CATALOG)                                       

  DEFINE CLUSTER(NAME(CICS.LCD)            -                      

    INDEXED                                -                         

    RECORDSIZE (45 124)                    -                         

    RECORDS (3000 200)                     -                         

    KEYS   (28 0)                          -                         

    REUSE                                  -                         

    FREESPACE (10 10)                      -                          

    SHR(2)                                 -                         

    CISZ(2048)                             -                         

    VOL(DOSRES SYSWK1))                    -                         

    DATA(NAME(CICS.LCD.@D@))              -                      

    INDEX (NAME (CICS.LCD.@I@))           -                      

    CATALOG(VSESP.USER.CATALOG)                                      

  /*                                                              */  

 DEF CLUSTER(NAME(CICS.RSD)                -                     

     INDEXED                                -                        

     RECORDSIZE (2000 2000)                 -                        

     RECORDS (250 100)                      -                         

     KEYS   (22 0)                          -                        

     FREESPACE (20 20)                      -                        

     SHR(2)                                 -                        

     VOL(DOSRES SYSWK1))                    -                        

     DATA(NAME(CICS.RSD.DATA))              -                    

     INDEX (NAME (CICS.RSD.INDEX))           -                   

     CATALOG(VSESP.USER.CATALOG)                                     

/*                                                                     

// IF $RC > 0 THEN                                                    

CANCEL                                                                

*                                                                      

*    INITIALIZE THE CICSICCF RESTART DATA SET                         

*                                                                     

// DLBL DFHRSD,'CICS.RSD',0,VSAM,CAT=VSESPUC                      

// EXEC IDCAMS,SIZE=AUTO                                              

   REPRO INFILE   -                                                   

        (SYSIPT                  -                                    

         ENVIRONMENT             -                                     

          (RECORDFORMAT (FIXUNB) -                                    

           BLOCKSIZE(80)         -                                    

           RECORDSIZE (80)))     -                                    

        OUTFILE (DFHRSD)                                              

ACTL 0001                                                            

/*                                                                   

// DLBL DFHGCD,'CICS.GCD',0,VSAM,CAT=VSESPUC                     

// EXEC IDCAMS,SIZE=AUTO          INIT GCD FILE                      

   REPRO INFILE                                      -               

           (SYSIPT                                   -               

           ENVIRONMENT                               -               

             (RECORDFORMAT(FIXUNB)                   -               

              BLOCKSIZE(80)                          -               

              RECORDSIZE(80)))                       -               

         OUTFILE(DFHGCD)                                             

/*                                                                   

// DLBL DFHLCD,'CICS.LCD',0,VSAM,CAT=VSESPUC                      

// LIBDEF *,SEARCH=(PRD2.CONFIG,PRD2.SCEEBASE,PRD1.BASE)             

// EXEC DFHCCUTL,SIZE=300K        INITIALIZE CICS CATALOG            

/*                                                                   

// SETPARM XNCPU=' '                                                   

// EXEC PROC=$COMVAR,XNCPU                                            

// EXEC DTRSETP,PARM='CPUVAR&XNCPU'                                   

   SET XPARTF2='F2'                                                   

   SET XMODEF2='COLD'                                                 

   SET XUSEF2='CI'                                                    

   SET XAPPLF2='DBDCCICS'                                             

/*                                                                     

// PWR R RDR,CICSICCF                                                 

/&                                                                    

* $$ EOJ

            The CICS/TS catalogs contain information that is required for restart purposes.  The global catalog contains all resource definitions that have been installed, while the local catalog contains information relating to the various CICS domains.   Be sure when deleting and redefining the catalogs to include the step to initialize them.

            This takes some of the operator interaction out of cycling or cold starting CICS and after you know this procedure works, you can go home and not worry about a phone call in the middle of the night (this time!) You could probably even automate this even further by placing a DTRIATTN step at the beginning with MSG CICSICCF,DATA=CEMT P SHUT to begin the shutdown procedure.

So, in order to really, really, cold start CICS, don't forget to reinitialize the Global Catalog, the Local Catalog, AND the Restart Data Set.

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