Signon/Signoff Procedure for CICS with ACF2

signon | signoff

            With the latest release of CICS, several changes have taken place regarding the way a client signs on and off the system. Specific changes are outlined below.

Signon

1. The old signon transaction  -- CSSN – is no longer supported. The correct transaction to use to bring up the signon screen is now  -- CESN --. Note the change of the second letter from ‘S’ to ‘E’. If you are used to simply pressing the Enter key when the CICS initial screen is displayed and thereby being transferred to the signon screen, this method will still work on the new system. If, however, you are used to clearing the screen and invoking the signon screen with a transaction  id in the upper left-hand corner , that id must now be CESN.

2. The physical layout of the signon screen itself has changed significantly.  Whereas on the old screen, you were only prompted for your full name and password, the new screen displays much more information, and has several different entry fields. A sample display of the new signon screen is shown below:

SYSTEM:  CICS                   WELCOME TO CICS/ESA 4.1

CICS SYSTEM SECURED BY CA-ACF2 CICS 6.1

TERMINAL:  T012

NODE:  TCPTRM12

DAY:  MONDAY

SYSTEM DATE:  JUNE 15, 2000

SYSTEM TIME:  10:15 AM

LOGONID: ==>

PASSWORD: ==>

NEW PASSWORD: ==>

(enter twice) ==>

CICS/VS  -  CIVS     ( SYSTEM  SIGNON/SIGNOFF  FACILITY )

The first six lines are informational only, and do not allow input.

The seventh line now prompts for a LOGONID, as opposed to Name. This is a fundamental change from the old signon screen. Instead of entering your full name, as you are used to doing, you must  enter your VAXA account name.  This is the character string you enter at the signon prompt when logging on to VAXA or using Eudora, and it is the email name you use to the left of the ‘@’ symbol in your full email address. This convention provides the user with a more consistent signon procedure across multiple platforms, and facilitates the management of accounts for system administrators.

The eighth line still prompts for your CICS password. Note that this is your CICS password, not your VAXA password ( although it may be changed to it - see below) ! After entering your password, you may press the Enter key to complete the signon process.

The ninth and tenth lines are typically left empty, but may be used to change your password at any time you choose, or when the system prompts you to do so if a maximum time period has expired since your last password change. This is a major change from the old way of assigning CICS passwords. Instead of Information Technologies (IT) periodically assigning random passwords and mailing them out to current CICS clients, that responsibility has now been transferred to the user. You may change your password any time you are on the signon screen by simply entering your old password in the PASSWORD: field, your new password in the NEW PASSWORD: field, and a re-entry of the new password in the (enter twice) field, for entry verification. Pressing the Enter key will effect the change immediately, and the new password will be used the next time you invoke the signon screen. The only restrictions on the values for new passwords are that they should be at least four but no more than eight characters long and may only contain the following characters:  any alphabetic ( upper and lower case), any numeric, any of the special characters @, $, and #.  Because all passwords are encrypted, IT has no way of telling you what your current password is, should you forget.  The most that can be done is that it can be reset to some simple value to allow you to sign on, and you may then change it again to a value of your choice while on the signon screen.

In all cases, upon successful signon to the system, the screen will clear, and a message of the following format will appear in the center of the screen:

ACF01137         Last-Name   LAST SYSTEM ACCESS  14:49-06/15/00  FROM  T037

ACFAE139        ACF2/CICS  T012   Signon  OK:  User=Logonid    NAME:  First-Name  Last-Name

where  First-Name and Last-Name will form the full name of the person signing on, and Logonid will be the VAXA/email value that was entered in the LOGONID field.

If the signon is not successful, the screen is not cleared and the following message appears near the bottom of the signon screen:

ACF01012      PASSWORD NOT MATCHED

The cursor will be repositioned in the PASSWORD: field, where you may re-enter the correct password .

Signoff

The only change associated with the signoff process is that the old transaction id – CSSF – is no longer supported. The new transaction id required is now CESF. Note that, as with the signon transaction ids, the only letter that has changed is the second one, in both cases to an ‘E’.  The normal procedure for signing off is to clear the screen ,  enter one of the following strings in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, and press the Enter key.

CESF LOGOFF -   This will disassociate your logonid and security profile with your terminal, and physically disconnect the terminal from CICS.

This is the recommended way of signing off.

CESF   This will disassociate your logonid and security profile with your terminal, but will not disconnect you from CICS. You may use this form of signoff  if you will be away from your desk for a  short  period of time, and want to be sure no one can enter transactions under your name. The signon screen must be invoked using CESN, and a valid logonid and password must be entered again before  transactions can be entered from that terminal.