Getting CICS reports under VSE/ESA to a PSF/AIX printer
ITEM: RTA000090939
Q:
ABSTRACT: Getting CICS reports under VSE/ESA to a PSF/6000 driven
printer.
SEARCH ARG: psf/6000 cics
TOPIC THREAD: PRINT
AFP
PSF6000
..
Working on a proposal for a customer to print host VSE/ESA/CICS
data to remote laser printers driven by PSF for AIX (PSF/6000).
The VSE/ESA system runs under VM/ESA. We want this to be a seamless
continuous print flow; so file transfers with LPR is not an option.
Here is a vision of how we thought the print data might flow:
CICS application generates a report under VSE/ESA. They then use
OpenConnect System to capture the report and route to the Ethernet
LAN via TCP/IP. Once there, PSF for AIX picks it up and manages
it's flow to a particular laser printer.
Two problems/questions come to mind in this scenario:
1. CICS print data looks different than 1403 line data. Would
PSF for AIX support raw CICS print data?
2. What about print destination? How would we carry the specific
print destination from CICS, through OCS, through the LAN to
PSF/6000, and ultimately to the appropriate printer.
If this does not seam feasible, can you recommend a better way?
Thanks in advance.
A:
There are two questions here--data stream support and connectivity.
As far as the data stream support, CICS itself is not necessarily data
stream dependent. It can put out different data streams, including 1403
line data or even AFPDS, which PSF for AIX does support.
What is the customer using to create the file, and what is the format?
Is the customer trying to use transient data queues or SPOOL OPEN?
I'm not familiar with the OpenConnect products, but does OCS emulate
a CICS-owned printer? If so, then the data stream is likely SCS, which
PSF for AIX does not support. But again, you can output various other
data streams from CICS, depending on the customer's application.
It seems to me that the most straightforward way would be to use CICS
SPOOL OPEN, SPOOL WRITE, SPOOL CLOSE to write 1403 line data to the
POWER spool (assuming those commands are supported in CICS/VSE). Then
if they have or are willing to install it, PSF/VSE could pick up the
job and using SNA and PSF Direct, route the output to PSF for AIX.
You mentioned TCP/IP, but from the (old) OpenConnect flyer that I have
that I have, it appears that you still must run SNA to an RS/6000,
where the OCS application runs to front-end any TCP/IP connection. So
if you have SNA anyway, why not PSF Direct? (You should check with the
OpenConnect folks to see if my information is still current and
correct; this flyer is more than a year old. I know they have a number
of new products per their Web home page.)
| IBM now offers TCP/IP for VSE from Connectivity Systems, so LPR
| can now be supported.
Another option to consider would be CICS/6000. One person I consulted
suggested that if the customer is using a transient data queue, it might
be possible write a transaction to do the printing through CICS/6000.
CICS/6000 can access AIX print queues, including PSF/6000 print queues.
You would not need PSF/VSE in this scenario. So that might be an option
worth investigating. I believe the connection between the two CICS's
would be SNA, but I'm not positive. I can route this off to the CICS
ASKQ queue if you'd like their comments.
As far as your second question, PSF for AIX gets its jobs off the AIX
spool. The way to get jobs onto the AIX spool is through either a local
print command, or from remote clients using the LPR/LPD protocols.
You would need to check with OpenConnect to see if/how their products
could place the data on the AIX spool.
Closing for now, but let me know if you have more questions or if you'd
like me to route this to the CICS queue for their comments.
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
AIX PSF FOR AIX PSF/6000 CICS VSE OPENCONNECT OCS TCP/IP SNA
psf/aix connectivity system tcpip4vse lpr ftp direct scs
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000090939 ITEM: RTA000090939
Dated: 05/1999 Category: XPSF6000
This HTML file was generated 2000/11/30~13:34:04
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