IBMLink Outage – October 23-25

If you are like me and rely on IBMLink (especially ServiceLink), be aware that there is a planned outage from Friday, October 23, 2009, at 8 PM Eastern, through Sunday, October 25, 2009, at 4 PM Eastern. IBM says that the outage is due to an upgrade to IBMLink Release 7.0, which is to contain function enhancements (to be detailed later). IBM says that the outage may not last the entire span of that time and could be available earlier than the planned end of the outage window.

In case you were not aware, IBM has a maintenance window for IBMLink scheduled every Saturday night from 11 PM Eastern through 9 AM Sunday morning. This coming weekend’s outage will last well beyond their normal maintenance window (at least it will start earlier).

Learn About How to Develop CICS Web Service Applications

IBM has a free webcast coming up next week that would appear to have some great information for those that have not delved into the world of web services yet. Paul Cooper’s presentation will include an overview of CICS web services, an introduction to using RD/z (IBM’s Rational Developer for System/z), and some best practices.

The webcast starts at 11 am EDT on September 22. This is just part one of a two part series … While Part One covers developing CICS web service applications, Part Two will be exactly one week later, in which Nigel Williams will share details regarding deploying CICS web services.

CICS Web Services Development – 11 am EDT, September 22, 2009

CICS Web Services Deployment – 11 am EDT, September 29, 2009

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Transaction or Task?

It is important that we use the correct terms to avoid confusion when communicating. Today’s topic is one regarding basic CICS terms, but this particular pair of terms are frequently used interchangeably when they actually have distinct meanings. I am sure I have been sloppy with my language at times and have been guilty myself of using the wrong term.

A transaction is definition of a transaction id, which is associated with a program id. When a transaction is invoked, a task is started in CICS. A task is a unit of work resulting from a transaction being started. Many different end users can execute the same transaction, but each results in a separate task. If you are talking about what defines how a program gets invoked from a blank screen or from an EXEC CICS START TRAN command, you are talking about a transaction; if you are talking about the specific results of a transaction being invoked, you are talking about a task.

It is a common mistake to say “transaction” when one is really talking about a “task”. It may sound like a trivial distinction, and often it is understood which is being discussed by the context, but you can distinguish yourself as someone who is knowledgeable about CICS by using the correct term.

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