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Mainframe Training Overview
This advanced-level course is designed for experienced CICS developers who want to deepen their knowledge of CICS internals, advanced debugging, and performance tuning techniques
Emphasis is placed on diagnosing complex problems, using advanced breakpoints, analyzing dumps, and integrating debugging with modern DevOps pipelines
Learning Objectives
As a result of the class, the attendee will be able to -
- Debug complex transactions using advanced features
- Analyze system dumps and transaction traces
- Perform performance tuning for high-volume CICS applications
- Use conditional breakpoints and monitoring options
- Integrates into modern testing and CI/CD workflows
- Document and share debugging artifacts for team collaboration
Mainframe Training Prerequisites
- Completion of Basic CICS or equivalent experience
- 1-2 years of hands-on CICS application development
- Working knowledge of CICS system internals and transactions
- Familiarity with Abend-AID or similar mainframe debugging tools (helpful)
Mainframe Training Course duration
3 days
Hardware Requirements
- Processor: 2GHz+
- RAM: 4 GB+
- Hard disc: 10 GB+ free space
- Internet connectivity
Mainframe Training Course outline
Unit 1: Breakpoints & Conditional Debugging
- Deep dive into complex breakpoint types
- Using conditional breakpoints for transaction-specific debugging
- Setting and managing watchpoints for variable/memory tracking
- Practical hands-on with advanced debugging commands
Unit 2: Transaction & Program Flow Analysis
- Debugging program-to-program control (LINK, XCTL, RETURN)
- Monitoring and debugging transaction lifecycles
- Handling inter-program variable passing issues
- Hands-on: Debugging a multi-program transaction chain
Unit 3: Debugging Best Practices
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- Standardized debugging methodologies
- Documenting debugging sessions for team collaboration
- Escalation guidelines for unresolved issues
- Real-world case study: Debugging under production-like pressure
Unit 4: System Dump & Trace Analysis
- Understanding CICS system dumps: formats and interpretation
- Dump datasets and key diagnostic fields
- Transaction trace analysis: spotting anomalies and delays
- Hands-on: Analyzing real-world CICS dump scenarios
Unit 5: Abend-AID Integration
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- Overview of Abend-AID capabilities for CICS debugging
- Integration for deeper diagnostics
- Linking Abend-AID analysis to application-level debugging
- Hands-on: Tracing a sample abend through Abend-AID
Unit 6: Debugging Multi-threaded Transactions
- Challenges in multi-user, multi-tasking environments
- Debugging multi-threaded transactions and reentrancy issues
- Race conditions and synchronization debugging techniques
- Hands-on lab: Debugging a concurrent CICS application
Unit 7: CICS System & Resource Locking Issues
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- Debugging lock contention and deadlocks in CICS
- Detecting excessive enqueue/dequeue activity
- Tools and techniques for resolving resource contention
- Lab: Simulating and resolving a deadlock scenario
Unit 8: Advanced Storage & Memory Debugging
- Debugging storage violations (S0C4, SOS, overlay issues)
- Tracking memory leaks in long-running CICS tasks
- Detecting and resolving storage fragmentation problems
- Lab: Analyzing and fixing a storage overlay error
Unit 9: Debugging CICS-DB2 Interactions
- Advanced techniques for debugging CICS applications with embedded SQL
- Setting breakpoints at DB2 calls and analyzing SQL errors
- Performance tuning for CICS-DB2 transactions
- Hands-on: Tracing and resolving issues in a CICS transaction with DB2 access
Unit 10: Modern IDE Integration for CICS Debugging
- Debugging CICS programs using VS Code and other modern IDEs
- Configuring remote debugging sessions and syntax integration
- Automating complex breakpoints and scripts in tools like Xpediter
- Hands-on: Setting up and debugging a CICS application in a contemporary development environment
Unit 11: Performance Tuning
- Monitoring critical performance metrics in CICS
- Identifying bottlenecks (CPU, I/O, storage constraints)
- Debugging performance-related issues in test scenarios
- Using reports for performance analysis
Unit 12: Automation & CI/CD Integration
- Integrating Intertest with automated build/test pipelines
- Scripting automated debugging scenarios
- Debugging in DevOps workflows (Jenkins, Git-based CI/CD)
- Hands-on: Setting up an automated regression test
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