CICS IA - Threadsafe Report

1.      Introduction
The CICS IA host side collects the Dependency, Affinity, and Command Flow data that can be used to carry out threadsafe analysis on a program or a transaction. The Load Module Scanner also provides the reentrant information to the report. The CICS IA threadsafe analysis report can be run in the CICS IA plug-in.
 
Threadsafe report can be used by the CICS programmer to analyse the thread safety aspects of their programs and for a better compliance with the best practices of the CICS application.

2.      Component Diagram
Figure 1 shows the component diagram for running a threadsafe report.

Figure 1: Component Diagram

3.      Report Details
The threadsafe report can be classified into 2 types as follows:
 

• Threadsafe Summary Report
• Threadsafe Detailed Report

 
a.       Threadsafe Summary Report:  
The summary report contains the threadsafe summary details like total CICS calls, number of the threadsafe calls, number of non-threadsafe calls, and related information as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Threadsafe Summary Report

• Total CICS calls: This value is the total number of CICS calls.
• Threadsafe calls: This value is the total number of Threadsafe commands that can run an open task control block (TCB) and do not cause a swap back to the quasi-reentrant (QR) TCB.
• Non-threadsafe calls: This value is the total number of CICS commands that are not threadsafe as they need to run on the QR TCB, and therefore can cause a TCB swap from an open TCB to the QR TCB.
• Total number of indeterminate calls: This value is the number of CICS calls, where we do not have enough information to decide whether the call is threadsafe or not.
• Total number of DB2 calls: This value is the total number of DB2 calls. DB2 calls moved to run on the open TCB in CICS TS V2.2.
• Total number of IBM MQ calls: This value is the total number of IBM MQ calls. IBM MQ calls moved to run on the open TCB in CICS TS V3.2.
• Total number of IMS calls: This value is the total number of IMS calls. IMS/DLI calls moved to run on an open TCB in CICS TS V4.2 when connected to the required level of IMS that supports this feature.
• Dynamic calls: This value is the total number of dynamic COBOL calls that have been identified.​
• Threadsafe inhibitor calls: This value is the total number of CICS calls that could lead to data integrity issues.
• Total number of CPSM calls: This value is the total number of CPSM commands. Currently, all CPSM commands are not threadsafe and run on the QR TCB.

b.       Threadsafe Detail Report: 
Along with the details present in threadsafe summary report, the detailed report also consists of information about each command executed as part of the program as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Threadsafe Detail Report

4.      Generating Threadsafe Report in CICS IA Plug-in
 
After collecting and loading the threadsafe data into the DB2 database, users can run the report from CICS IA plug-in.
 
Users can generate the report on Program, Transaction, and a Region. Option to  generate the report for a selected program in all regions or in a specific region is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Report Generation on a Program

 
a.       Threadsafe Report Parameters
 
While generating the report, you can select from the following parameters as shown in Figure 5.

• CICS TS Level: CICS TS Level where the data collection must run.
• Collection Id: Specific collection for which you want to generate the report.
• Region: Region filter to select the region.
• Program: Program to generate a report.

 
NOTE:

1. If Show detailed data is selected, then threadsafe detail report is generated, else summary report is generated.
2. Use “*” (wildcard character) if the users do not want to refine the report based on the given parameters.

Figure 5: Threadsafe Report Input Parameters

Now the user must select the location where the report is saved. Preferably, the report must be saved inside the threadsafe report folder with an appropriate name as shown in Figure 6.
​

Figure 6: Saving a Threadsafe Report

b.       Opening Threadsafe Report in Eclipse Editor
 
To open a report in Eclipse editor, user can directly double-click on the saved report or right-click the report and select Open Report as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Opening a Threadsafe Report

The threadsafe report opens as shows in Figure 8.
​

Figure 8: Threadsafe Report

c.       Opening Threadsafe Report in the Eclipse Browser and Printing the Report
To open a threadsafe report in the Eclipse browser, right-click the report and select Open in Browser  as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Opening a Threadsafe Report in an Eclipse Browser

The report opens in the Eclipse-embedded browser as shown in Figure 10.
​

Figure 10: Threadsafe Report in Eclipse Browser

To print the report or save as PDF, press Ctrl+P.
Reference:
CICS Interdependency Analyzer overview                                                                        (https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg246458.pdf)
 
Contact:
Ganesh Adiga R (ganeshadiga.r@hcl.com)
​