Upgrading from Version 7 Release 2 on Windows

Items that you need to consider when upgrading to a newer version of CICS® Transaction Gateway on Windows.

Installation directory

When you upgrade, the installation process keeps your existing <install_path>.

Windows services

The CICS Transaction Gateway now runs as a single service on all supported Windows operating systems. Messages associated with running the CICS Transaction Gateway as a service are written to the Application and System sections of the Windows Event log.

Operating the Gateway daemon

The Gateway daemon always runs as a Windows service and it is no longer possible to operate the Gateway daemon in console mode. The ctgstart command is removed from the product and the ctgadmin command is extended to support starting the Gateway daemon.

Location of configuration, log and trace files

The default location of configuration, log and trace files is changed from <install_path>/bin to <product_data_path>. The installer automatically moves configuration files from <install_path>/bin to <product_data_path>. For more information see File path terminology

Configuration file (ctg.ini) changes

CICS Transaction Gateway configurations that worked with previous releases might not work after upgrade; configuration checking is enhanced to ensure that the values used by CICS Transaction Gateway are the intended ones. Protocol handlers are not started unless explicitly configured.

Parameters:
  • On Windows the GATEWAY section log destination parameters log@info.dest and log@error.dest must be set to the file destination.
  • The GATEWAY section parameters noinput and quiet are no longer supported on Windows. Instances of these parameters that are found in a configuration file from a previous release, or as an override parameter, are ignored and a log message is generated.
  • The ecigenericreplies, msgqualvalidation, and uowvalidation parameters are no longer supported. This means that ECI_GET_REPLY and ECI_GET_REPLY_WAIT call types are no longer available in remote mode and message qualifiers and LUW tokens are validated so that they can be used only on the JavaGateway connection to that they were allocated.

    If one or more of these parameters are specified in the configuration file, the Gateway daemon ignores the value and startup continues. If you use the Configuration Tool to edit a configuration file that contains any of these parameters, the Configuration Tool removes all instances of the deprecated parameters when the configuration file is updated. If you do not use the Configuration Tool to edit your configuration files, you must manually remove the deprecated parameters from the configuration file.

    If any of your applications rely on the deprecated parameters, the following situations occur:
    • Java™ Client applications running in remote mode that use the ECI_GET_REPLY or ECI_GET_REPLY_WAIT call types receive the ECI_ERR_INVALID_CALL_TYPE error when they flow the request to the Gateway daemon. Java Client applications running in local mode can use ECI_GET_REPLY and ECI_GET_REPLY_WAIT call types.
    • Any remote mode Java Client application that relies on the msgqualvalidation parameter being turned off receives the ECI_ERR_NO_REPLY error when trying to use the message qualifier on a connection that did not start the asynchronous pieces of work.
    • Any application that relies on the uowvalidation parameter being turned off receives the ECI_ERR_LUW_TOKEN error when trying to use the LUW token on a connection that did not start the LUW.

    ECI V2 asynchronous call support is unaffected by the deprecation of these parameters.

Removal of named pipe protocol support on Windows

The named pipe protocol for Windows is no longer supported. To enable communication with local TXSeries CICS systems replace all named pipe server definitions with TCP/IP server definitions.

Using the JEE interfaces in nonmanaged mode

The JAR file cicsj2ee.jar file is renamed to cicsjee.jar.

Supported characters in server names

Server names must now use characters from the supported character list to ensure that all CICS TG functions work correctly. Existing configuration files containing server names using unsupported characters can continue to be used as an aid to migration but might not work in all scenarios. Configuration files containing server names that use unsupported characters should be migrated as soon as possible.

For the list of supported characters, see the relevant page on configuring the server name for the required protocol in Configuring CICS server connections.

Client log files on Windows

The Client daemon information and error log files are now written in the UTF-8 text encoding on Windows. When using existing log files that were created with an earlier version of CICS TG, new log messages might appear incorrectly due to the change of text encoding. To avoid this, rename or remove existing Client log files before starting CICS Transaction Gateway, or update your CICS Transaction Gateway configuration to use new Client daemon log files. For more information, see Client daemon logging.

IPIC server idle timeout default setting

The default setting of the server idle timeout period for IPIC server connections has been changed to zero, so that the idle timeout period is disabled. Previously, IPIC server connections would be closed if idle for more than 60 minutes. This change affects local mode topologies and remote mode topologies which do not configure a IPIC server idle timeout.

Removal of ciphersuites=128bitonly parameter

Use of the ciphersuites=128bitonly parameter is deprecated. If you use the Configuration Tool to open a configuration file that contains the ciphersuites=128bitonly parameter, the parameter is replaced by the following list of cipher suites:
  • TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5
  • TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
  • TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
Cipher suites entered as TLS_ are converted to SSL_ when CICS Transaction Gateway starts.

SSL keyring settings moved

The SSL key ring settings are now product wide; they have been moved from the SSL protocol handler in the GATEWAY section to the PRODUCT section of the configuration file. The same SSL key ring settings are used for both SSL protocol handler and IPIC server SSL connection definitions. The SSL key ring parameters must be defined in the PRODUCT section in order to use IPIC over SSL. The definition of the SSL key ring parameters in the GATEWAY section is supported, if not using IPIC over SSL, for migration purposes. The SSL key ring settings are: keyring, keyringpw, and keyringpwscrambled.

TLS cipher suites

Cipher suites entered as TLS are no longer converted to SSL when CICS Transaction Gateway starts.

Information Information

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Timestamp icon Last updated: Tuesday, 19 November 2013


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