Summary of changes from end-of-service releases

This section summarizes the changes that were made to CICS® externals and interfaces in 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4. Use this information with the summaries of changes in later versions, to plan the impact on applications of upgrading from these versions. This information is here to support migration, during periods of extended service, from releases of CICS TS that have been generally withdrawn from service.

For more information about these changes, see the What's New information for 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4.

This document reflects changes only up to the date when a release was withdrawn from service (end-of-service). Occasionally current APARs can apply also to end-of-service releases. For fix lists that summarize all the APARs for each CICS TS release level, see Fixes by version for CICS products.

Overview of release changes

View new capabilities in major areas of technology change, by release of CICS TS. Version tags preceding list headings below indicate the version to which a list of technology change summaries applies.

CICS Transaction Server for z/OS®, Version 5 Release 4
5.4 Applications
  • Asynchronous EXEC CICS API to extend programming language capabilities.
  • API extensions for improved interoperability with batch applications.
  • Enhancements to web services support.
  • Decision Server Insights event format.
5.4 Liberty
  • Support for applications written to the Java™ EE 7 Full Platform specification
  • Ability for a CICS program to invoke a Java EE application running in a Liberty JVM server
5.4 Management
  • System autoinstall of program definitions for LE.
  • Enhanced management for applications that use IBM® MQ.
  • Extended control of VSAM data set access in support of GDPS® Continuous Availability.
  • Support for the z/OS Workload Manager Health API.
  • Feature toggles to enable new features selectively.
  • Extensions to statistics and dump capabilities
5.4 Policies
  • Support for system rules
  • New asynchronous requests task rule
5.4 Security
  • Support for Kerberos mutual authentication.
  • CICS makes a RACF® check by default before generating a PassTicket.
  • 3270 IDS.
  • IBM Health Checker for z/OS checks
  • New transactions for debugging applications in production
5.4 Discontinued
  • Management:
    • System events (deprecated)
    • CICSPlex® SM Real-Time Analysis (RTA) (stabilized)

For more information, see Stabilization notices and discontinued functions.

CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, Version 5 Release 3
5.3 First-class applications
Transaction resources as application entry points, channel delete, and recovery of application availability status
5.3 Java
IBM MQ classes for JMS, document constructor, and simplified log management
5.3 Liberty
CDI, local JMX connector and REST JMX connector, EJB Lite, managed beans, MongoDB, Monitor, OSGi console, database session persistence, LINK and START commands support invoking Java applications in Liberty, Java EE 7 Web profile, Java batch, Standard mode Liberty, Java EE messaging (JMS) and IBM MQ as a JMS provider
Type 2 cicsts_dataSource and cicsts:jdbc-1.0 are deprecated. You can use Liberty dataSource instead. For access to Db2® through CICS you can now use the default dataSource element for type 2 connectivity rather than the customized cicsts_dataSource.
The wab-1.0 feature was added to cicsts:core-1.0 and cicsts:standard-1.0 as it is used internally by CICS. As a result, all OSGi bundles with a Web-Context root will be treated by Liberty as web applications, and installed as such.
5.3 Management
New policy thresholds, transaction tracking for CICS-MQ bridge, DFHCSDUP COPY and LIST
5.3 Performance and scaling
Threadsafe commands, System z9® exploitation, tuning of HTTP connections
5.3 Policies
Enhancements to task rules
With APAR PI83667: Support for system rules, policy threshold rules renamed to policy task rules, policy thresholds renamed to policy conditions
5.3 Security
AT-TLS, SIGNON TOKEN, REQUEST PASSTICKET, HTTP TRACE inactive by default
5.3 Discontinued
  • Management: PASSWORD attribute on FILE resource, ACTJVMTCBS and MAXJVMTCBS on INQUIRE and SET DISPATCHER commands
  • Security: SSLV3 support
CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, Version 5 Release 2
5.2 First-class applications
Multi-versioning
5.2 Liberty
JAX-WS, JDBC type 4, JTA
5.2 Multiple editions
CICS Transaction Server, Value Unit Edition, Developer Trial
5.2 Policies
Enhancements to task rules
With APAR PI83667: Support for system rules, policy threshold rules renamed to policy task rules, policy thresholds renamed to policy conditions
5.2 Security
SAML and Kerberos support, TLS 1.2 enforcement, and NIST-SP800-131a conformance
5.2 Discontinued
None.
CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, Version 5 Release 1
5.1 Automation for application deployment
CICS TS build toolkit, DFHDPLOY utility, CICS TS plug-in for IBM UrbanCode® Deploy
5.1 Events
Emission of events to multiple EP adapters
5.1 First-class applications and platforms
Container support for DPL bridge
5.1 Java
64-bit Java, Java 7.0, Java 7.1, Java 8, and Feature Pack for Mobile Extensions
5.1 Liberty
Support for Java servlets and JSPs
5.1 Management
2000 MXT, and TD threadsafe
5.1 Policies
Support for task rules
With APAR PI83667: Support for system rules, policy threshold rules renamed to policy task rules, policy thresholds renamed to policy conditions
5.1 Discontinued
  • Integration: DCE support
  • Java: EJB and CORBA support, JVM pool support, CCI Connector for CICS
  • Management: Message edit utility, DFHMEU