Identifying Interfaces in CICS/mainframe

Ashishpanpaliya · New User Joined: 13 Oct 2017 Posts: 34 Location: India

I am working on migration project where I wanted to identify mainframe interfaces with other both mainframe and non mainframe system/application.

I found files and MQ interfaces. Now I am looking for interfaces through CICS.

I extracted the following commands that are getting executed in CICS programs.

I believe CICS link/XCTL/send and receive map will provide interface information on mainframe based two application. Now, I wanted to know how to find interfaces with non Mainframe based application.
Happy to provide more details if require.

Thanks in advance !!!

ABEND
ADDRESS
ALLOCATE
ASKTIME
ASSIGN
BIF DEEDIT
BUILD ATTACH
CANCEL
CONNECT PROCESS
CONVERSE
CREATE TERMINAL
DELAY
DELETE
DELETE CONTAINER
DELETEQ TS
DISCARD TERMINAL
DUMP
ENABLE PROGRAM
ENDBR
EXTRACT ATTACH
EXTRACT LOGONMSG
FORMATTIME
FREE
GET CONTAINER
GETMAIN
HANDLE ABEND
HANDLE AID
HANDLE CONDITION
IGNORE CONDITION
INQUIRE CONNECTION
INQUIRE FILE
INQUIRE PROGRAM
INQUIRE SYSTEM
INQUIRE TASK LIST
INQUIRE TERMINAL
INQUIRE TRANSACTION
INQUIRE TSQNAME
INVOKE WEBSERVICE
ISSUE ABEND
ISSUE DISCONNECT
ISSUE PASS
LINK
PUT CONTAINER
QUERY SECURITY
READ
READNEXT
READPREV
READQ TD
READQ TS
RECEIVE
RECEIVE MAP
RETRIEVE
RETURN
REWRITE
SEND
SEND CONTROL
SEND MAP
SEND TEXT
SET CONNECTION
SET FILE
SET SYSDUMPCODE
SET TDQUEUE
SET TERMINAL
SET TRANDUMPCODE
SET TRANSACTION
SIGNOFF
SIGNON
SOAPFAULT CREATE
SPOOLCLOSE
SPOOLOPEN OUTPUT
SPOOLWRITE
START
STARTBR
SYNCPOINT
SYNCPOINT ROLLBACK
UNLOCK
WRITE
WRITE OPERATOR
WRITEQ TD
WRITEQ TS
XCTL

Rohit Umarjikar · Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:47 am

Don't you have a separate libraries for cics,mq,maps programs?

Ashishpanpaliya · New User Joined: 13 Oct 2017 Posts: 34 Location: India

Yes, WE have the library and we are using XINFO tool that acts as database for system information.

I have identified the maps, tso/tdq,files and MQ. IS anyway CICS is interfacing with other application(Mainframe and non frame) and how to identify them?

Rohit Umarjikar · Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:40 pm

First of all all those programs in the libraries will narrow down most of the options. Second , have you talked to the cics system support to know areas to invetigate further ?

Robert Sample · Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:53 am

I find this request somewhat bizarre. You find interfaces by either reading the application documentation (which should state the interfaces), or by querying the application staff (who probably will refer to the documentation). At a previous employer, one application was moved from a mainframe to a Unix server (actually, a number of them). During the conversion process, they discovered a total of 42 interfaces between external systems (some within the company, some not) using CICS, batch, and Unix scripts. The applications people had never counted the interfaces and did not realize they had so many.

Attempting to find interfaces by code inspection is unlikely to be a very complete exercise. The ALLOCATE and CONVERSE CICS API calls are most likely interfaces; however, what about an external server that starts an APPC session to a CICS transaction? It could RECEIVE the data, process it, and return results to the external server without doing any unusual CICS API calls.

Furthermore, interface conversion can be tricky. For some financial applications, for example, the banks hard-code the IP address your application uses; change the IP address and the interface stops working and requires work on the bank's part to re-establish (sometimes this can take 2 to 3 weeks just by itself).

Ashishpanpaliya · New User Joined: 13 Oct 2017 Posts: 34 Location: India

I understand the first part but the way we have contract with client, its our first responsibility to identify the interface based on technical skills and accessing system programs/database.

Thanks on pointers provided in second para which will help in getting some more details.