Overview

IBM® IMS Connect Extensions for z/OS® (referred to as IMS Connect Extensions) is a tool that enhances the operation of IMS Connect. IMS Connect is the premier pathway for accessing IMS applications and databases via TCP/IP.

IMS Connect Extensions extends IMS Connect by providing the following features:

Monitoring and recording of IMS Connect activity

IMS Connect Extensions provides a detailed audit of activity, giving you the information you need to analyze performance, throughput, resource availability, and security. You can use this information to debug clients and new applications. Use the IMS Connect Extensions feed to expose near real-time IMS Connect transaction summary data to analytics platforms. This includes information regarding the message’s origin, its destination, and the overall response time.

Single point of control for multiple IMS Connect systems

Centralized management of all your IMS Connect systems, including monitoring and control of OTMA and Open Database workloads, MSC physical links, and remote IMS Connect systems, from an ISPF Operations dialog or from the IMS Connect Extensions Operations Console for z/OS Explorer. Use the IMS Connect Extensions host command environment for REXX to automate operations management tasks as desired.

Enhanced workload management

Dynamic management of TCP/IP transactions, allowing you to define routing rules to automatically balance and distribute workloads and reroute messages when IMS system failures occur. Temporarily suspend routing of messages to an IMS data store to reduce the likelihood of transactions failing or being rejected when IMS is shut down. Ability to assign selected OTMA routing rules to a routing plan and dynamically switch between routing plans. Automatically response to changes in the IMS environment such as dynamically added IMS data stores and flood conditions. Automatically respond to the failure of an IMS™ Connect system by balancing the number of TCP/IP sessions directed to each remaining live IMS Connect system.

Enhanced Open Database management

Dynamic management of TCP/IP DRDA requests, allowing you to define rules to redistribute workload based on capacity or by relative machine running costs. Ability to assign selected ODBM routing rules to a routing plan and dynamically switch between routing plans.

Socket management

Controls the number of input messages for a persistent session, allowing automatic distribution of persistent session workloads in a sysplex environment.

Enhanced security

Control access to OTMA transactions or DRDA requests based on the client IP address and IMS Connect port number, and to IMS Connect instances, via a system authorization facility (SAF) security class. Use IP address rules to treat messages coming from an IP address as a trusted user or to assign a specific user ID to the request.

Improved client services

Additional features for IMS Connect clients such as enhanced information in error messages, password change facility, and extended message translation.