Dynamically install CICS SVCs and LPA and Linklist modules to an LPAR with CICS running

With CICS TS 5.1 it is possible to dynamically install the CICS SVC i.e. no IPL is required to install the 5.1 SVC. However, this can only be achieved by shutting down any CICS regions running on the LPAR, installing the SVC, LPA and LINKLIST modules and restarting the CICS regions.


From an applications point of view this is not much better than having to IPL as the application is not available for an extended period and our Lines of Business would want to go through the same approval process for this outage as they would for an IPL.


In our environment outages for IPLs on some LPARs occur only 4 times a year and in future this may be reduced still further.


The Request for Enhancement would be to be able to dynamically install a new CICS SVC ( and LPA and LINKLIST modules) into an LPAR which is actively running many CICS regions and for those running CICS regions to immediately and seamlessly use the new SVC, LPA and LINKLIST modules e.g. DFHIRP module, and to continue to communicate using MRO etc . Also any CICS region which was then brought up as the upgraded version should be able to communicate via MRO with the existing running regions.


This would allow great flexibility in the rollout of future CICS Versions, allowing testing of the new version without interruption to running systems.