Blog Summary
This blog, and the more detailed paper to which it links, aims to answer the following questions:
- What issues need to be considered when deploying CICS Explorer to multiple users?
- What are the available mechanisms for installing CICS Explorer?
- How is it best to keep deployed versions of CICS Explorer up to date?
- What customizations is it possible to deploy to users?
The techniques discussed are equally applicable to IBM Explorer for z/OS (z/OS Explorer).
This CICS paper is an updated version of IBM Redpaper 5054. The paper is updated to be accurate to recent changes in the way CICS Explorer is delivered and functional changes within the CICS Exporer product.
Why talk about deployment?
One of the most common questions after system administrators experience CICS Explorer is “what is the best way to deploy this to my users?”. CICS Explorer is software that must run on the end user’s laptop, which is at odds with the server-based software that our system administrators are more commonly used to dealing with.
There are a number of different techniques for installing, ranging from some where the user is in control of retrieving Explorer and keeping it up to date independently, all the way through to some where the installation is centrally managed and shared between users; with different compromises for each technique.
What will I get from this paper?
At the end of the paper you will have an overview of the primary deployment technique that we see customers using. You’ll understand the positives and negatives of each deployment technique and be able to move towards choosing the right one for your situation. You’ll understand what features can be customized at deploy time to better suit your enterprise.
Useful links
You can read the CICS paper here. For more information around CICS Explorer: