Starting the CICS bridge

To start the bridge, run the CICS bridge transaction. The default transaction is CKBR but you might have defined a different one; it has five optional parameters:

• Q=qqq, where qqq is the name of the queue holding requests. If you do not specify a queue name, the default is

  SYSTEM.CICS.BRIDGE.QUEUE.

  Remember that names of objects within WebSphere MQ are case-sensitive.

• AUTH=LOCAL|IDENTIFY|VERIFY_UOW|VERIFY_ALL. The default is LOCAL. All options are described in WebSphere MQ for z/OS System Setup Guide.

• WAIT=nnn, where nnn is the number of seconds that you want the bridge task to wait for subsequent requests before timing out when processing a unit of work that runs many user programs.

  The default wait time is unlimited.

  You are recommended to specify a wait time. If you do not specify a wait time, the CICS bridge might inhibit CICS or queue manager shut down.

• MSG=CSMT|LOG|BOTH, where the option determines whether messages generated by the CICS bridge will be sent to the CICS job log, the CICS master terminal, or both. The default is BOTH.

• PASSTKTA=applid, where applid specifies the application id to be used for validating the passticket. The default is the CICS region application ID. See WebSphere MQ for z/OS System Setup Guide for details of passtickets.

Start the CKBR task running by using one of the following methods:

• Input a single line from a terminal (3270 or other). The format is:

  CKBR Q=<queue name>,AUTH=<auth option>,WAIT=nnn,MSG=<msg option>,PASSTKTA=<applid>

  For example:

  CKBR Q=MyQueue,AUTH=IDENTIFY,WAIT=30,MSG=LOG,PASSTKTA=APP1

  The terminal will be unlocked so it can be used for other work.

• Issue an EXEC CICS START for the CKBR transaction with the parameters as data.

  We can have a program which runs as part of CICS PLTPI processing which issues this command, and specify the userid which the bridge monitor transaction is to run under.

• Issue an EXEC CICS LINK to the program CSQCBR00 with the parameters as data in the commarea.

  CSQCBR00 is a long running task and this program will only return when the bridge stops.

• Use TRIGGER TRIGTYPE(FIRST) on the bridge request queue to start a process specifying APPLICID(CKBR), with any parameters in USERDATA. However, we can not specify the Q=qqq parameter in USERDATA.

If you are running multiple bridge monitors sharing a queue, we can start one of the monitors by putting a message onto the bridge request queue. However for private local queues only one trigger message will be produced, so the bridge monitor will only start on one CICS region. You should therefore consider alternative ways of starting the bridge monitors, for example using a program in the CICS startup PLT processing to start the transaction with the required parameters or using automation products to start the transaction.

The level of security you want to use influences how you start the monitor task. See the WebSphere MQ for z/OS System Setup Guide for information on the security options available to you.