Setting up the External CICS interface (EXCI) access

To access a CICS® resource from the File Manager plug-in or from the File Manager Base function via ISPF and batch, you must perform each of the steps shown here:

1. Enable CICS® Interregion communications

   Specify the system initialization parameter IRCSTRT=YES, or ensure IRC is started dynamically with an OPEN IRC command.

2. Define connections to CICS®
   Copy member FMNCCONN from FMN.SFMNSAM1 into your JCL library and customize the JCL as described in the member. Ensure the group is defined and included in the start up list for the CICS® regions to be connected to.

   Note: If you change the transaction name of FMNX, ensure you customize the File Manager Base component and server options modules to specify the new transaction name via the EXCITRAN parameter (see Step 3).
3. Option module changes

   If the transaction ID FMNX was changed in Step 2, then FMN0POPT must be modified to specify the new transaction ID by means of the EXCITRAN keyword.

4. EXCI Load library
   The CICS® external interface library cicshlq.SDFHEXCI must be made available to TSO, the batch job, or the ADFzCC server , either in the linklist, or as a part of the STEPLIB in the TSO procedure, or batch JCL, or as a part of the FMNLIB in the configuration file used by the ADFzCC server startup procedure. If you are using a STEPLIB, then you should customize the batch job submission skeleton FMNFTEXC to include the library.

   Note: For an FMNELIBD invocation of File Manager, the EXCI load library can be specified using the SDFHEXCI variable in the FMNELIBD exec. See Preparing File Manager to run with LIBDEFs for more details.
5. FMNCICS DD

   Copy member FMNCAPPL from FMN.SFMNSAM1 into your own PDS(E) data set that has the attributes of record format FB and logical record length 80. Edit this member to provide a list of CICS® regions that are accessible to File Manager. This is used to support generic queries from the File Manager ISPF interface and the File Manager Eclipse plug-in.

   The layout of the member is:

   1 - 8

   CICS® VTAM® applid

   10 - 72

   CICS® region description

   All users must have read access to the data set and the FMNCICS DD should be defined to the TSO procedure and the ADFzCC server File Manager configuration.

   Note: For an FMNELIBD invocation of File Manager, the FMNCICS DD can be allocated by specifying the FMNCICS variable in the FMNELIBD exec. See Preparing File Manager to run with LIBDEFs for more details.
6. Security
   All CICS® communications are performed under the security defined for the user running the File Manager function. A user must have update access to the FACILITY class profile DFHAPPL.user ID to be authorized to use the EXCI Call interface. You must define the FACILITY class profiles shown here:

   RDEFINE FACILITY (DFHAPPL.userid) UACC(NONE)

   Where userid is either a generic name or a specific user name. We recommend you use an asterisk (*) and control access to the facility class using the permissions.
   Users requiring CICS® access should be given UPDATE access to the FACILITY class as shown here:

   PERMIT DFHAPPL.userid  CLASS(FACILITY) ID(USERID)   +
                 ACCESS(UPDATE)

For more information about setting up the CICS® external interface, refer to the CICS® Transaction Server for z/OS® CICS® External Interfaces Guide.