Configuring a CICS IA system connection

Before you can view any information, you must establish a connection between the CICS® IA plug-in and your CICS system by providing details about the DB2® location settings. You must also enter your authentication requirements, user IDs and passwords in the Credentials view.

About this task

The CICS IA plug-in Collector places details about interactions between CICS programs and resources in a set of DB2 tables. To access these tables, you require a user ID and password that connects to the location of the DB2 database.

Procedure

  1. On the workbench menu, click Window > Manage Connections. The Host Connections view is displayed.

    If your connections are preconfigured, you see the connections under the categories in the view. If not, the categories are empty. The following example screen shows the Host Connections view with one connection in each category of IA Collector and Interdependency Analyzer. Each connection is associated with a credential. The credential is shown in brackets after the connection name.

    Host Connections view that shows one connection in each category type. Each connection is associated with a credential, except for the z/OS FTP connection. The credential is shown in brackets after the connection name.

  2. If the connection is already defined, as in the screen image above, click on the connection name and click Connect.
  3. To create a new connection, select the CICS IA Collector connection type and click Add. The new connection dialog opens.
    A screen image of the new connection dialog.
  4. Enter the name you want to use for this connection.
  5. Enter the Host name and port number.
  6. If this connection is secured using the SSL protocol, check Secure connection (TLS/SSL)
  7. Enter the DB2 location and schema.
  8. To start the connection now, click Save and Connect. Alternatively, click Save and Close to save the connection details without connecting at this time. To start the connection at a later time, select the connection from the list in the Host Connections view and click Connect
  9. Optional: You can now choose to associate a credential with the connection. Right-click the connection name and hover over Set Credentials to show the credentials available.
    A screen image of the credential menu where you can associate a credential with a connection.
    Click the credential that you want to use for the connection. See Defining connection credentials for more information.
    If you do not associate a credential with the connection at this time, you will be prompted for the credential when you start the connection.

What to do next

You can import connections from another user by clicking Load Connections from File or URL in the toolbar of the Connections view.

A screen image of the toolbar in the Connections view. The import and export tools are on the right.

You can export your connections to save them for backup purposes or to share with other users. In the toolbar of the Connections view, click Export Connections to File and enter a path and file name. The default file type is pref.