Administering CICS from a console device

You can operate CICS® from a console device. A console device can be a locally-attached system console, a TSO user defined as a console, or an automated process such as NetView®.

Before you begin

To use a console device, you must first define it to CICS. This is explained in Defining console devices.

About this task

You can use the console device for CICS main terminal functions, to control CICS terminals or to control several CICS regions in conjunction with multiregion operation. Normal operating system usage of the console device is not inhibited, and CICS supports multiple console devices where present.

Procedure

  • Define the console device that should be used for putting MODIFY commands into your job stream.
    For more information about putting commands into job streams, see Using JCL to initiate CICS commands.
  • Invoke CICS transactions from the console device by using the MVSMODIFY command (F for short).
    Other CICS operators can communicate with the console device operator. Note that the CEDA transaction can be used from a console device to install resource definitions only. The sample programs cannot be executed from a console device.
  • Use the MVS command d consoles to display a list of console devices and their names.
  • Use TSO CLIST processing, or an automated process such as NetView, to issue sequences of CICS commands.
    To associate command responses with the originating command from an automated process, add a command and response token (CART) to the originating command. CICS returns this CART in all write-to-operator (WTO and WTOR) macros issued in response to the command.