Product Definitions (XAD)
The Product Definitions (XAD) hold
information that is needed in order to interface to other transactional products;
for example, XA-compliant databases that use the X/Open XA protocol. Each
XAD entry contains information for one product. The Product Definitions (XAD) include
the following attributes:
Note: Attribute names appear as they are used on
the command line, followed in parentheses by the descriptions that are used
by the AIX® System
Management Interface Tool (SMIT).
- <Key>
- This attribute specifies the name of the product, and is the key for the XAD entry. Product
names can be specified in no more than 12 characters.
If you are using the IBM TXSeries Administration Console, SMIT (CICS for AIX), to set this value, see Restrictions on the use of characters.
- ActivateOnStartup (Activate resource at cold start?)
- This attribute specifies whether a resource definition is always copied from the permanent database to the runtime database at the cold start of a region. If the attribute is set to yes, the resource definition is always copied from the permanent database to the runtime database. If the attribute is set to no, the resource definition is not copied to the runtime database unless its group has been specified in the Groups attribute of the Region Definitions (RD). The default value is yes.
- AmendCounter (Number of updates)
- This attribute is reserved for CICS® internal use.
- GroupName (Group to which resource belongs)
- This attribute specifies the name of a group to which this resource definition belongs. The name is specified in an eight-byte string. For cold starts, you can specify that CICS copies, from the permanent database to the runtime database, resource definitions that belong to groups that are named in the Groups attribute of the Region Definitions (RD). (This can be done in addition to setting the ActivateOnStartup attribute to yes for resources whose definitions are to be copied on startup from the permanent database to the runtime database.) The default value is "", which specifies no group.
- Permanent (Protect resource from modification?)
- This attribute specifies whether amending or deleting the permanent database entry is permitted. If the attribute is set to no, the entry can be amended or deleted. If the attribute is set to yes, the entry cannot be modified or deleted. To modify the entry, first reset the attribute to no. After amending the entry, set the attribute back to yes. The default value is no.
- ResourceDescription (Resource description)
- This attribute specifies this XAD entry with a 30-byte string. The default value is “XA Product Definition”.
- SwitchLoadFile (Switch Load File Path Name)
- This
attribute specifies a path name to an object file that contains the xa_switch_t structure
definition and XA support subroutines for this XA-compliant product. The default
value is "".
This file is loaded into a CICS application server by using an operating system call. The file must contain a function that returns the address of an xa_switch_t structure.
The path name can either be a full path name, a relative path name, or the base name of the support file. In the last case, a search is made for the file in the current region’s bin directory, followed by the $CICS/bin directory (for Open Systems) or the c:\opt\cics\bin directory (for Windows). This attribute can be specified in the same way as is the PathName attribute in the Program Definitions (PD) definition, and CICS shows the same search behavior as with the PathName attribute.
- XAClose (Resource Manager Termination String)
- This attribute specifies a close string that is passed to the XA xa_close function. The content of the string is specific to the XA product that is being defined. Refer to the product documentation that is supplied with the XA-compliant product. The default value is "".
- XAOpen (Resource Manager Initialization String)
- This
attribute specifies an open string that is passed to the XA-compliant xa_open function.
The content of the string is specific to the XA product that is being defined.
Refer to the product documentation that is supplied with the XA-compliant
product. The default value is "". Note: By default, the XA open string appears in the CICS region's console file on startup. To prevent this string (which, for particular databases, can contain the user ID and password) from appearing in this file, add the line
CICS_SUPPRESS_XAOPEN_STRING=1to the region's environment file, which is in /var/cics_regions/regionName/environment (for CICS on Open Systems) and \var\cics_regions\regionName\environment (for CICS for Windows). - XASerialize (Resource Manager Serialization Attribute)
- This
attribute specifies how CICS serializes access to an XA-compliant resource manager
in a multithreaded process. This attribute is used to indicate that an XA-compliant
resource manager supports XA calls from multiple threads, and what style of
serialization the XA-compliant product requires.
The following values are accepted:
- all_operations: CICS serializes each XA call that is made.
- start_end: xa_start and xa_end calls: Serialization occurs around a transaction.
- single_association: Specify this value if the XA-compliant product is not thread aware. Only one association is active against the database at a time. The xa_open call is made once for the whole process at the point when the first work is done against the database.
- multiple_association: You can specify this value if the XA-compliant product is thread aware. More than one active association is permitted at a time. The xa_open call is made for each thread that will access the database.
The default value is all_operations.