Make CICS/TS V3 Function Like 4.1 (For Free!)

Still running CICS/TS 3.1 or 3.2, and cannot upgrade yet to the recently released 4.1 version due to budget constraints or other restrictions? You can still get some of the benefits available in 4.1 by installing these free SupportPacs for CICS available on the IBM web site!

Deleting a File That Is “In Use”

Let’s step away from CICS for a minute and look at an issue that comes up from time to time … You want to delete a file, perhaps an old, uncataloged version of a dataset that is always open – say, SYS1.PROCLIB. If you go to the DSLIST screen in TSO (option 3.4) and enter the dataset name and volume, and try to delete it, you will be informed that the delete failed because the dataset was in use. There is a SYS1.PROCLIB in use, but it’s not the one you are trying to delete. You know what you are doing, but z/OS doesn’t trust you, it seems. (Actually, it’s just that z/OS enqueing is by dataset, not dataset and volume.) The way around this is to “zap” the VTOC to change the name of the dataset to something else that is not in use; then you can delete it.

Free CICS Storage Display Utility

One of my favorite little tools for supporting CICS is one that doesn’t cost a dime. For years, Russ Evans has made his storage display utility available on his web site, Mainframe Solutions. It can be used to display storage by address, or to display a system area (for example, CSA can be displayed), or to display storage associated with a program id. Many times I have helped an applications programmer trouble-shoot an issue by displaying the storage associated with their COBOL program, and being able to show him/her when it was compiled.

The name of this utility is REECORE. Super simple to install, and even easier to use. If you have a need to update storage in a live CICS region, an upgrade to enable that feature in REECORE is available for just fifty bucks. This is a nice little tool to keep in your hip pocket; if you’ve been working with CICS long enough, you’ve already seen times it would have been handy … If not, rest assured that you will.