This IBM® Redbooks® publication is intended for IBM CICS® system programmers and IBM Z architects. It describes how to deploy and manage Java EE 7 web-based applications in an IBM CICS Liberty JVM server and access data on IBM Db2® for IBM z/OS® and IBM MQ for z/OS sub systems.

In this book, we describe the key steps to create and install a Liberty JVM server within a CICS region. We then describe how to best use the different deployment techniques for Java EE applications and the specific considerations when deploying applications that use JDBC, JMS, and the new CICS link to Liberty API.

Finally, we describe how to secure web applications in CICS Liberty, including transport-level security and request authentication and authorization by using IBM RACF® and LDAP registries. Information is also provided about how to build a high availability infrastructure and how to use the logging and monitoring functions that are available in the CICS Liberty environment.

This book is based on IBM CICS Transaction Server (CICS TS) V5.4 that uses the embedded IBM WebSphere® Application Server Liberty technology. It is also applicable to CICS TS V5.3 with the fixes for the continuous delivery APAR PI77502 applied. Sample applications are used throughout this publication and are freely available for download from the IBM CICSDev GitHub organization along with detailed deployment instructions.

This book was produced by a team of specialists from around the world.

Phil Wakelin works for CICS development at IBM UK in Hursley, and is a member of the CICS strategy and design team. He has worked with many CICS technologies for the last 25 years, and is currently responsible for Java Adoption with new CICS customers. He is the author of many white papers, SupportPacs, and IBM Redbooks publications in the areas of CICS integration and Java support.

Carlos Donatucci is a certified IT specialist expert working at IBM Buenos Aires Global Delivery Center as CICS Subject Matter Expert specialist for several accounts in the US and Canada. He is a member of the Americas Certification Board and the Technical Counsel of Argentina. He has more than 27 years working as a Mainframe specialist in several areas, such as software management, automation, scheduling, and online and batch optimization.

Jonathan Lawrence is a Software Engineer in the CICS Level 3 Service team at IBM Hursley UK, specializing in Java, Liberty, and related technologies. He previously held roles as an IBM Software Services CICS integration specialist and in the Java Technology Center. He was also an author of another IBM Redbooks publication.

Mitch Johnson is currently working as a Subject Matter Expert for IBM MQ, z/OS Connect EE, and ODM in the Washington System Center in the United States. Before this role, Mitch was a consultant in IBM Software Services for WebSphere where he was a Subject Matter Expert for WebSphere Application Server on z/OS. He has worked on previous IBM Redbooks publications and IBM Redpapers™ pubications that primarily focused on connectivity to z/OS resources from WebSphere Application Server and other resources. His areas of expertise include CICS; IBM DB2®; IBM IMS™; IBM MQ; z/OS; Java; Java Platform, Enterprise Edition Connectors; and security.

Michael Jones is a Software Engineer working at IBM Hursley UK. He has over 10 years of experience in Java. He also works as the lead tester for Java in CICS and as a Java SME on IBM CICS TS modernization projects.

Tito Paiva has worked as a developer, DBA, and application development support since the 1980s. He worked for 5 years as a WebSphere for z/OS pre-sales specialist at IBM SWG in Brazil. He now is working as a Subject Matter Expert for middleware at IBM GTS in Poland. His areas of expertise include WebSphere, Java, DB2, CICS, IMS, IBM MQ, and security.

This IBM Redbooks publication was managed and edited by Martin Keen.

Special thanks to Robert Haimowitz for his outstanding support.

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

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