Installing Natural Advanced Facilities under CICS on z/OS

This document describes the steps for installing Natural Advanced Facilities under CICS on z/OS.

Prerequisites

Supported versions of the following products must be installed before you can install Natural Advanced Facilities:

See also General Prerequisites and System Support in the section Overview of the Installation Process.

Installation Medium

The installation medium contains the following data sets required for product installation:

Data Set Name Contents
NAFvrs.LOAD Load modules
NAFvrs.SRCE Source modules and macros
NAFvrs.SYSF Natural FSPOOL system file definition
NAFvrs.INPL Natural objects
NAFvrs.ERRN Natural error messages

Copy the data sets into your environment as described in Copying Data Sets to a z/OS Disk in the section Installing Natural.

Sample Jobs

Sample installation jobs are contained in the NATvrs.JOBS data set and are prefixed with the product code. The data set is provided on the installation medium supplied for base Natural.

Installation Procedure

Be sure to read Installation Process and Major Natural Features before you start the installation procedure.

Step 1: Define the CICS RDO Definitions

(Job I005)

This step only applies when using VSAM system files.

  • Define the CICS RDO definitions for the sample VSAM files:

    Add the Natural Advanced Facilities spool files (SPOOL, SPOOLA, SPOOLB, SPOOLC, SPOOLD and SPOOLE) to your FCT.

For performance reasons, we strongly recommend you to specify a transaction ID for the spool server, which is different from that of the terminal task. It is then possible to dedicate special threads to the spool server.

If you want to convert an existing VSAM spool file, the FCT must contain the entries for this spool file. The cluster names of the new and the old versions must be different. The VSAM database ID and file number as well as the VSAM DD names must be unique.

Step 2: Prepare a VSAM Cluster for the Spool File

(Job I008, Steps 0300 - 0311)

This step only applies when using VSAM system files.

  • Define and initialize a VSAM cluster to be used as the spool file (FSPOOL) and five alternate indices.

Step 3: Load the FSPOOL System File Definition for Adabas

(Job I050, Step 0300)

This step only applies when using Adabas system files.

Skip this step if you want to use an existing spool file of Natural Advanced Facilities.

Load the new Natural FSPOOL system file definition contained in the NAFvrs.SYSF data set by using the Adabas ADALOD utility.

Step 4: Build the NAFPARMC Parameter Module

(Job I055, Step 0305)

The use of the NAFPARMC parameter module is optional. Alternatively, you can set the server options with Function 30 (see the Natural Advanced Facilities documentation) of the SYSPOOL application.

  • Modify, assemble and link the NAFPARMC module.

Step 5: Build the Natural Parameter Module

(Jobs I060, I080)

  1. Modify the parameters FSPOOL, NTPRINT, NAFUPF and NAFSIZE in the Natural parameter module according to your site requirements. For more information on these parameters, see NATSPOOL Initialization in the Natural Advanced Facilities documentation.

  2. Assemble and link the Natural parameter module.

VSAM System Files

The following additional step applies when using VSAM system files:

  • Set the FSPOOL parameter as follows: 

    FSPOOL=(vsam-dbid,fnr-fspool,dd-name-fspool)

    where:
    vsam-dbid is the database ID of the VSAM file to be used as the spool file,
    fnr-fspool is the file number of the VSAM file to be used as the spool file,
    dd-name-fspool is limited to seven characters.

Step 6: Link the Nucleus

(Jobs I060, I080)

  • Add the following INCLUDE statements to the link steps for Natural and link-edit the executable module: 

     INCLUDE NAFLIB(NAFAF)
    		 
     INCLUDE NAFLIB(NAFNUC)
    		 
     INCLUDE SMALIB(NAFPARMC)

    (optional)

The link-edit of the load module containing Natural Advanced Facilities can be done in any of the following ways:

  • Include all modules of Natural Advanced Facilities, that is, NAFNUC, NAFAF and, optionally, NAFPARMC in the link-edit of Natural.

    Note:
    If a shared nucleus is created, the modules can be included in the shared nucleus.

  • Link-edit NAFNUC, NAFAF and, optionally, NAFPARMC and an alternative Natural parameter module as a separate module with the mandatory name CMPRMTB specified in the ENTRY statement. The name of the resulting module is optional.

    Note:
    This way of link-editing only applies if an alternate parameter module (PARM=parameter) is used. If so, an additional CICS PPT entry with PROGRAM=name is required.

  • Link-edit NAFNUC, NAFAF and, optionally, NAFPARMC as a separate module with the mandatory name NATAM08 specified in the ENTRY statement. The name of the resulting module is optional. If it is different from NATAM08, however, it must be specified as an alias name in the NTALIAS macro of the Natural parameter module.

    Note:
    This way of link-editing only applies if the CSTATIC and RCA profile parameters (see the Parameter Reference documentation) are used. If so, an additional CICS PPT entry with PROGRAM=name is required.

The following additional step applies when using VSAM system files.

  • Add the following INCLUDE statement to all links of the nucleus: 

     INCLUDE NVSLIB(NVSFSPO)

Step 7: Load the Natural Objects

(Job I061, Step 0300)

  • Load the Natural objects specific to Natural Advanced Facilities from the NAFvrs.INPL data set into the Natural system files SYSPOOL and SYSPRINT by using the Natural INPL utility.

    Ensure that the INPL load function finishes with the message:

    Natural Advanced Facilities initialized by INPL

    If this initialization fails, various problems will be encountered at execution time.

The maps contained on the data set are provided in source form so that you can modify them according to your requirements (for example, translate the maps from English into another language). If you modify these maps, ensure that all fields have the same format/length/relative position in the map. Failure to abide by this restriction will result in an invalid system.

Step 8: Load the Natural Error Messages

(Job I061, Step 0304)

  • Load the Natural error messages specific to Natural Advanced Facilities from the NAFvrs.ERRN data set into the Natural FDIC system file by using the ERRLODUS program of the Natural SYSERR utility (described in the Utilities documentation).

Step 9: Create a Separate Thread Group for Printer Transaction

(Job I070, Steps 2245, 2250, and Job I080)

We recommend that you establish a separate thread group for the Natural Advanced Facilities printer transaction. To do so, perform these steps:

  1. Modify the Natural CICS Interface system directory (Step 2245):

    Include a definition of the Natural Advanced Facilities printer thread group into the Natural CICS Interface system directory.

  2. Relink the modified Natural CICS Interface system directory (Step 2250).

    Repeat linking of the Natural CICS Interface system directory.

See also Build the Natural CICS Interface System Directory Module in Installing Natural CICS Interface on z/OS or Installing Natural CICS Interface on z/VSE in the Natural Installation documentation.

Step 10: Define Natural Advanced Facilities for Natural Security

This step must be performed only if Natural Advanced Facilities is being installed in a Natural Security environment.

  • Define SYSPOOL to Natural Security with the startup program MENU.

    Note:
    The physical CICS printers and the application SYSPRINT need not be defined to Natural Security. The Natural Security logon processing will identify the NATSPOOL spool server and perform a simplified logon to SYSPRINT, that is, without any further security checks. In this way, maintenance efforts and the number of Adabas calls at the start of the spool server are considerably reduced. Any logon to SYSPRINT attempted by users other than the NATSPOOL spool server will be rejected by Natural Security, regardless of whether SYSPRINT is defined to it or not.

Step 11: Start Natural

  • Start Natural and add the user profile, as defined in the NAFUPF parameter of the Natural parameter module, to the SYSPOOL file by using Function 31.1 (described in the Natural Advanced Facilities documentation).

    Note:
    A NAT7201 message is issued at the start of the session indicating that the profile has not yet been added to the SYSPOOL file.

Step 12: Create the NATSPOOL Environment

  • Initialize a new NATSPOOL environment as described in NATSPOOL Initialization in the Natural Advanced Facilities documentation.

Step 13: Define Natural Advanced Facilities for VTAM/SNA

This step must be performed only if Natural Advanced Facilities is to be used in conjunction with VTAM/SNA printers.

  • Define devices in the TCT with a RELREQ=YES. This will ensure that VTAM printers are released at the end of printout time when devices are shared with other CICS, TSO or BATCH regions, or with JES.

  • Define TRMSTAT=INTLOG or CREATESESS=YES for the printer to allow EXEC CICS START requests to create a session.

  • Ensure that the devices have the SHARE option generated into the controller VTAM specifications.

Step 14: Define Natural Advanced Facilities for VTAM/non-SNA

This step must be performed only if Natural Advanced Facilities is to be used in conjunction with VTAM/non-SNA printers.

  1. Include TRMSTAT=TRANSCEIVE in the TCT definition for the device.

  2. Set the VTAM definition for the device parameter ISTATUS to ACTIVE.