1. What is the difference between START and XCTL?
START is used to start a new task. It is a interval control command. XCTL is used to pass control to a program within the same task. It is a program control command.
2. What are the thress BMS options?
Minimum, Standard, FULL
3. What is the primary objective of CICS?
To provide the control and services of the DB/DC system
6. How would you resolve an ASRA abend?
In COBOL II start with CEBR, and get the offset/instruction.
Runaway Task.
8. What is the usage of language in the PPT entry?
Language interface and call parameters
9. How do you handle errors in CICS programs?
Check EIBRESP after the call or use the HANDLE condition.
10. Can you use DYNAMIC calls in CICS?
Yes, the called routine must be defined in PPT and the calling program must use CALL identifier...
11. Name some important fields in the EIB block?
EIBRESP, EIBCALEN, EIBRRCDE, EIBTASK, EIBDATE, EIBTIME
12. What is EXEC CICS RETRIEVE?
Used by STARTed tasks to get the parameters passed to them.
DB2/IDMS not up.
Any data exception problem SOC7, SOC4 etc.
Task control commands to make resources serially reusable.
Destination Control Table used define TDQs
DFHEIBLK, DFHCOMMAREA.
18. What is MDT? What are FSET, FRSET?
MDT: Bit in the attribute byte indicating modification of field on screen. Happens on an input operation.
FSET: Sets MDT on to ensure field is transmitted. Happens on an output operation
FRSET: Reset MDT. Until this happens, field continues to be sent.
19. What is the attribute byte?
Defines the display/transmission of field. Most cases is an output field from the program.
20. What is the difference between physical map and symbolic map?
The physical map is the load module and the symbolic map is the data structure.
22. What is the difference between a Symbolic map and Physical map?
SYMBOLIC MAP IS USED BY USER AND PHYSICAL MAP IS USED BY SYSTEM
23. Why is it important not to execute a STOP RUN in CICS?
Stop run will come out from the CICS region.
24. How to build up LU 6.2 communication?
Pseudo-conversational transactions are almost always the preferred method. In these mode CICS releases resources between responses to user input, i.e. the task is ended awaiting the user response.
Package and plan are usually used synonymously, as in this site. Both contain optimized code for SQL statements - a package for a single program, module or subroutine contained in the database request module (DBRM) library. A plan may contain multiple packages and pointers to package that could be referenced in two different plans.
26. What is the ABEND command and when would you use it?
The ABEND command forces a task to end abnormally. It creates a transaction dump and invokes the dynamic transaction backout.
27. What is the CICS LOAD command?
The LOAD command retrieves an object program from disk and loads it into main storage - it's primarily used for a constant table that will be available system-wide.
28. What is task control and what are the CICS commands associated with it?
Task control refers to the CICS functions that manage the execution of tasks. Task control commands are SUSPEND, ENQ, and DEQ.
29. What is interval control and what are some of the CICS commands associated with it?
CICS interval control provides a variety of time-related features - common commands are ASKTIME, PORMATTIME, START, RETRIEVE, and CANCEL.
30. How do you delete Item 3 in a five-item TSQ?
You can't at least not directly. Options, none of them good, inlude:
I. adding a logical-delete flag to the contents of each item;
II. moving item 4 to 3 and 5 to 4 and initializing item 5, all thru rewrites; this is a variant on 1;
III. Creating a new 'copy' TSQ that excludes the unwanted item, killing the old TSQ (deleteq ts). writing the new TSQ with the original name from the new TSQ, and then deleting the 'copy' TSQ. This way, you will get an accurate report from NUMITEMS.
31. What is the meaning of the ENQ and DEQ commands?
Neither command is exclusively a transient data command. The ENQ command reserves any user defined resource for the specific task. For enqueued transient data no other task will be able to write records to it for as long as it is enqueued. DEQ removes the lock.
32. What is a logical message in CICS?
A logical message is a single unit of output created by SEND TEXT or SEND MAP commands
BMS collects the separate output from each command and treats them as one entity.
This technique may be used to build CICS reports.
CEBR lets you browse the contents of a specific temorary storage queue.
CEDF is the execute diagnostic facility that can be used for debugging CICS programs.
CECI is the command level interpreter transid that interactively executes CICS commands. It is a rudimentary CICS command debugger which does not require coding an entire program.