Upgrading CICS Explorer

This topic summarizes the actions you might need to upgrade CICS Explorer®.

Recommendation: You are recommended to use the most recent fix pack release of CICS Explorer so as to get all available capabilities and to work with CICS regions at any supported release level.

Upgrade actions

Table 1 lists the actions you must perform when upgrading your CICS Explorer to a higher release, regardless of your current release. The sections that describe these actions in detail are tagged with All versions.

Table 1. Common actions
Action	Mandatory or optional?
Check compatibility of CICS Explorer	Mandatory
Back up your CICS Explorer workspace	Optional, but recommended
Upgrade or install a new copy of CICS Explorer	Mandatory

Check compatibility of CICS Explorer

All versions

Be it CICS Explorer for Aqua or CICS Explorer on Eclipse Marketplace, you must use a release of CICS Explorer that supports the release level of your CICS region. As CICS Explorer is backwards compatible, you are recommended to use the most recent fix pack release of CICS Explorer.

For detailed information about compatibility between CICS Explorer and CICS TS, see the compatibility reference table provided in the CICS Explorer product documentation.

In CICS Explorer, some features are available only on higher releases of CICS TS, or they require server enablement.

Back up your CICS Explorer workspace

All versions

Before you upgrade or install a new copy of CICS Explorer, it is advisable to back up your CICS Explorer workspace. Between different versions of CICS Explorer, the workspace data format might change and backwards compatibility might not be possible.

For instructions, see Taking a backup of the CICS Explorer workspace in the CICS Explorer product documentation.

Upgrade or install a new copy of CICS Explorer

All versions

If you use CICS Explorer for Aqua, you cannot directly upgrade from one Aqua version to another because the Eclipse platform underneath is different. Instead, you need to install a new copy of CICS Explorer. Within an Aqua version, you can upgrade CICS Explorer to get more recent fix packs in the same way as it was installed.

If you use CICS Explorer on Eclipse Marketplace, in your Eclipse IDE, click Help > Check for Updates to get more recent fix packs of CICS Explorer.

For further instructions, see Downloading and installing CICS Explorer in the CICS Explorer product documentation.