Upgrading between releases with CICS continuous delivery

Upgrade actions

You can choose to deploy the function on specific CICS regions or across CICSplexes. You can also implement the function on lower-level CICS systems, if supported. Some features are further controlled by the selective use of feature toggles.

1. Decide which features to apply.

   Use the following tables to plan for additions of function to your CICS environment. A brief introduction is included for some features.

   Note: Features are listed in chronological order, with the most recent additions at the bottom.
   • For Java™, OSGi, and Liberty, Table 1 shows additions of CICS Liberty features through continuous delivery, and Table 2 lists all other features.
   • Table 3 lists continuous delivery features for CICS web services.
   • Table 4 lists continuous delivery features for CICS policies.
   • Table 5 lists continuous delivery features related to security.
   • Table 6 lists all other CICS continuous delivery features.

   To learn more about any of the continuous delivery features, see the What's new information for your CICS release, or click the link provided with the APAR to view the APAR details in the IBM Support Portal. See Table 1 in Planning to upgrade for links to the What's new information for supported releases of CICS TS.

2. If any of the features are managed by feature toggles, decide which ones to enable. See Specifying feature toggles.

Features for Java, OSGi, and Liberty

CICS Liberty features

Table 1 shows, by release, additions of CICS Liberty features through continuous delivery. Some Liberty features are made available to in-service CICS releases with CICS APARs that bring CICS-embedded Liberty JVM server to the latest WebSphere Application Server Liberty fix pack level.

Table 1. Continuous delivery for Liberty features, by release of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS

CICS Liberty feature	5.5	5.6	6.1	6.2
adminCenter-1.0	PH08321	BASE	BASE	BASE
beanValidation-2.0 cdi-2.0 javaee-8.0 javaMail-1.6 jaxrs-2.1 jsf-2.3 jsonb-1.0 jsonp-1.1 servlet-4.0 webProfile-8.0	PH15017	BASE	BASE	BASE
springboot-1.5 spring boot-2.0	BASE	BASE	BASE	BASE
microProfile-1.3 microProfile-1.4 microProfile-2.0 microProfile-2.1 microProfile-2.2 microProfile-3.0 microProfile-3.2 microProfile-4.0 microProfile-4.1	Not applicable	BASE	BASE	BASE

To view the complete list of CICS Liberty features that are supported by your CICS release, follow these links:

• 6.x
• 5.6
• 5.5

Other features

Table 2. Other continuous delivery features for Java, OSGi, and Liberty, by release of CICS Transaction Server for z/OS

Feature	5.5	5.6	6.1	6.2
New JVM server profile option com.ibm.cics.jvmserver.trace.specification Use this option to filter package and class trace from the JVM server.	PH11496	BASE	BASE	BASE
Support for EXEC CICS LINK to a Spring Boot application running in a Liberty JVM server You can add the @CICSProgram annotation to a method on a Spring bean. When the application is started in Liberty, a CICS program definition is dynamically created. Then, the Spring Boot application can be invoked by any CICS program through an EXEC CICS LINK call.	PH14856	BASE	BASE	BASE
Support for Java EE 8 Full Platform in integrated-mode Liberty in CICS By using the embedded version of IBM® WebSphere® Liberty (Liberty), CICS TS supports applications that are written to the Java Enterprise Edition (EE) 8 Full Platform specification in integrated mode. Java EE 8 includes many new and enhanced APIs, such as JSON processing, RESTful web services, authentication by using custom identity stores, and JavaMail.	PH15017	BASE	BASE	BASE
Support for Jakarta EE 8 Platform The Jakarta EE 8 full platform technologies and specifications are an evolution of Java EE 8, allowing developers and applications to easily transition from Java EE to Jakarta EE.	Not applicable	BASE	BASE	BASE
<applicationManager autoExpand="true"/> is applied as a default Liberty configuration setting but is not visible in server.xml. This setting causes application file archives to be automatically expanded into the ${server.config.dir}/apps directory on first use. This avoids expansion of file archives into the Liberty work area on server startup, reducing zFS file I/O and making more efficient use of the Java shared class cache. If you wish to override this setting and switch it off, then you should place the XML element: <applicationManager autoExpand="false"/> in your server.xml file.	PH28793	PH28793	REMOVED	Not applicable

Features for CICS web services

Features for CICS policies

Features for CICS security

All other continuous delivery features

CICS support for WebSphere Application Server Liberty fix packs

Table 7 shows all the CICS APARs that provide support for Liberty fix packs. Only some of these fix packs enable new Liberty features; the others are simply ongoing maintenance. If the fix pack enables new Liberty features in CICS, these features are listed in Table 1.