Defining resources and starting the CICS® Transaction Server Agent
To complete the CICS® Transaction Server Agent installation, you must define a number of resources in the CICS® region.
Before you begin
About this task
- Several CICS® programs and resources that must be defined in the CICS® region to be intercepted.
- The RITAGENT batch service. The batch service must be run on the same z/OS® system as the intercepted CICS® region or in a z/OS® system within the SYSPLEX that runs the intercepted CICS® region.
- Only one RITAGENT can be run for one CICS® region. Do not attempt to run multiple RITAGENT jobs for one CICS® region. That is, do not run the second RITAGENT against the same CICS® region even in a different z/OS® system in a SYSPLEX environment.
- If CICS® is restarted, you must restart the CICS® Agent so that it reconnects to the new instance of CICS®.
One RITAGENT can work for only one CICS® region. You can run multiple RITAGENT jobs if you need to intercept multiple CICS® regions. Within one system each RITAGENT job name must be unique.
The Rational® Integration Tester CICS® Agent needs Language Environment® support, TCP/IP, EXCI, and the intrapartition data set to be configured.
For information about installing Language Environment® support, see Installing Language Environment® Support.
For information about setting up and configuring CICS® TCP/IP, see Setting up and configuring CICS® TCP/IP.
For information about using the EXCI options table, see Using the EXCI options table, DFHXCOPT.
For information about defining the intrapartition data set, see Defining the intrapartition data set.
Procedure
Complete the following steps in consultation with your CICS® administrator:
-
Create the intrapartion data set by using the DINTRA#T
member and update the DFHINTRA DD name in the CICS® region start procedure.
If you already have a DFHINTRA dataset, and do not want to recreate it, you must ensure that your current dataset was created with RECORDSIZE parameters matching the parameters in job DINTRA#T.
- Create the CICS® EXCI option load module named DFHXCOPT by using the EXCIOP#T member.
-
If the TCP/IP interface in the CICS®
region is not already set up, set it up as follows:
- Edit the EZACAC#T member and submit it to create the user cache.
- Edit the EZACFG#T member and submit it to create the TCP/IP configuration.
- Edit the EZACIC#T member according to the comments in that member.
- Edit the EZADEF#T member and submit it to create the resources for sockets.
- Edit the EZAPLT#T member and submit it to create the PLTPI program.
-
Define the Rational® Integration Tester
Agent resources:
- Edit the RITUSD#T member.
- Edit the RITDEF#T member and submit it.
-
Edit the CICS® region start procedure and
system initialization parameters and restart the CICS® region:
-
Create a unique RITAGENT JOB, based on @RITHLQ@.CICS.PROC(RITAGENT). Modify the
contents, based on instructions within the JCL.
Note: The RITAGENT job stops automatically when it can no longer communicate with either CICS Transaction Server or Rational® Test Control Panel. Once it detects a problem with either connection, it periodically tries to reestablish the connection. If the attempts to reconnect are not successful, the agent shuts down. You can set environment variables within the RITAGENT job to control how many times the agent attempts to reconnect to CICS or Rational® Test Control Panel. For more information on setting these environment variables, see the comments within the RITAGENT job.
Prior to version 10.0.0, the agent could only successfully reconnect to the same instance of CICS. Starting in version 10.0.0, the agent can reconnect to CICS, even if CICS was restarted. If you want the agent to remain up during CICS restarts, you might need to increase the value of the EXCI_MAX_ERRNUM environment variable to ensure that the agent does not shut down automatically before the new instance of CICS was started.
What to do next
After all the resources are configured, you can start the agent by submitting the following JCL. (In these examples, RITAGT1 is the name of the unique RITAGENT job created in the previous step): @RITHLQ@.CICS.PROC(RITAGT1)
You can also refresh the contents of the RITLOGxx datasets (either RITLOG01 or RITLOG02, whichever is currently in use) with the following SDSF command /F RITAGT1,REFR