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CICS stands for Customer Information Control System. It is a general-purpose transaction processing subsystem for the z/OS operating system. CICS provides services for running an application online, by request, at the same time as many other users are submitting requests to run the same applications, using the same files and programs.

CICS manages the sharing of resources, the integrity of data and prioritization of execution, with fast response. CICS authorizes users, allocates resources (real storage and cycles), and passes on database requests by the application to the appropriate database manager (such as DB2). We could say that CICS acts like, and performs many of the same functions as the z/OS operating system.

The current, supported CICS by VRM, announce dates, withdrawal from marketing; and de-supported;

CICS TS V2.x - Availability Date: December 19, 2003

• The End of support date for CICS TS 2.2 is 30 April 2008
• The End of support date for CICS TS 2.3 (EOS no date)

CICS TS V3.1 - Availability Date: March 25, 2005

• The End of support date for CICS TS 3.1: CICS TS V3.1 became unavailable when CICS TS V3.2 became available.

CICS TS V3.2 available 29 June 2007

End of Service http://www-306.ibm.com/software/support/lifecycle/index_a_z.html#C

For any version/release still supported; the OS pre-reqs;

CICS TS for z/OS V2.3 requires z/OS V1.4, or later.

CICS TS for z/OS V3.1 requires z/OS V1.4, or later.

CICS TS for z/OS V3.2 requires z/OS V1.7, or later.

Migration considerations: do any upgrades from CICS V1.3.1 involve application changes; -or- any changes are transparent to the end-user?

Review the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Version 2 Migration Plan