Another Great Cruise

Tampa to the Cayman, Islands to Cozumel Mexico back to Tampa.  I know it doesn't have anything to do with CICS, but... A bad day at sea is still better than a good day working!  Not that I don't like my current position, I really do. 

I'll have to find some interesting CICS  facts / info to talk about, now that I'm back...

CICS Explorer

Just wondering how many people are using this tool and why.

Is it used in conjunction with CICSPlex, instead of????

Please share your thought's ...

Sorry I've been away for a while...

Great Cruise. Ate too much, but then what are you supposed to do ... Great weather. We had a wonderful time.

Now back to CICS... and some DB2

We have had some discussions about adding MORE test CICS regions. We have about 60 or so now. They usually come on pairs. Two distinct application directions. One is primarily VSAM and the other is DB2. One has some Web code, the other doesn't.
Virtually NO MRO, a little function shipping and a little File sharing (VSAM). Just a bit 1980's, without the Web code ... This is the 21st century, isn't it?

Trying to get the developers to think a bit more outside the box is like trying to get a COBOL programmer to write code in Fortran or RPG. So thy don't disrupt any other testing that mey be going on, they want a new set of CICS regions. Taking turns is something they haven't learned yet.

We've had the same problem with DB2 subsystems, but a DASD limitation has curbed those requests, until we get more DASD. On the DB2 side, system testing is requiring a production sized subsystem for their testing. If we didn't have many clients, and the system test was for most everything, that would be possible. But, we have 30+ clients, the systems test is for one of those clients, so one would think the set-up for the system test would be for that client's data, a subset of production, but the system test folks seem to have a problem figuring out what data is whose and rather than taking the time ONCE to figure that out, they ask for pretty much everything. And they wonder why their tests run so long ...

Just wondering how others handle the testing problem...

Vacation ...

During the next two weeks, I'll be cruising with Holland America, in the Caribbean, enjoying the sea breeze and fine food and exotic ports of call. I'll be thinking of some new topics for this blog and IF I get a chance may even post something from the ship.
Later...

Twitter use amoung CICS people

Just curious about how much Twitter is being used in addition to / instead of, the mainstream discussion list use. This has been recently talked about on several DB2 blogs. Twitter use seems to be increasing, when users have access at work. Social networking is still a bit iffy in the typical business world, but expanding. A status Blogs had a short time a go.
I look at Twitter the same as a blog or discussion list: another tool in the tool belt. Yes it can get overwhelming if you are following hundreds of people and hundreds are following you. You feel obligated to respond right away, which can take you away from "normal" duties. But, if you get some information that can save you time/money/work/solve a problem, is it worth it? Some say yes, those that use Twitter and some say no, mostly management. Is the time spent worth the results?

Your thoughts...?

Least we forget QOR's and DOR's

Martin Packer, reminded me of a couple other CICS regions that are being used. QOR's or Queue Owning Regions, for your Temporary Storage queues, DOR's or Data Owning Regions for data, can be files, Data Tables or anything data..

How are you using these CICS regions?

TOR, AOR, FOR

What do your environments look like? Some that I've seen include:

1. one TOR - four AOR's
2. two TOR's - six AOR's - one FOR
3. TOR/AOR - one FOR

The list can be endless ...