CICS/Timeout enhances security and reduces resource consumption by automatically logging off or signing off inactive users, even those running conversational tasks. Time intervals may be specified by terminal-id, net name or USERID, so you can control how long each user has to be inactive before he is signed off or logged off. If a terminal with a conversational task is inactive, you can have CICS/Timeout abend the task before signing or logging the terminal off.

Your auditors will like the fact that unattended terminals are less vulnerable to unauthorized use. Users who dial in from remote locations can also be logged off, saving on long distance charges.

With CICS/Timeout specific transactions, userids and/or operator ids can be excluded from time out. Specifying terminals for timeout or exclusion from timeout is made easy by use of terminal, net name, USERID, operator id, or transaction ranges and/or generic representations. In this example the following userids are excluded from being timed out: (1) 'DP01' since it is entered specifically, (2) any USERID with the first two characters of 'AC' since the wildcard character '*' is keyed at the end, and (3) any userids 'CE01' through 'CE08' since 'CE01' is keyed in LOW and 'CE08' is keyed in HI. Similar screens are provided to exclude operator ids and transactions.

CICS/Timeout can be started automatically by a PLT entry or invoked at anytime by a terminal operator with administrator authority. You may have it start monitoring immediately or specify a time of day for it to start. You can also specify a time of day for it to automatically disable.

An audit trail is sent to the console and CSMT log showing when CICS/Timeout is turned on or off, and whenever a terminal is signed off or logged off by CICS/Timeout. Depending on your preference, different levels of detail can be displayed with each message.

By using the CICS/Timeout sign off function and the display of active users, you can improve security and find out who is using CICS and what transactions they are using. When you want to shut CICS down, you can easily see who is still on the system without having to call each department.

When you need to do a new copy on a CICS program or close a CICS file, CICS/Timeout can show all terminals using the transaction(s) which would be affected. Those users can be notified to avoid using the transaction for a few minutes. CICS/Timeout shows the transaction whether it is active or pending (NEXTTRAN id).

Besides logging or signing off terminals, additional actions can also be taken when a terminal is timed out. They include deleting TS Queues and starting special cleanup transactions. Actions can vary depending on the transaction being timed out. All of this is accomplished online and can be modified at any time. In the example on the next page special action will be taken when timing out transactions 'ACC1', 'ACC5' through 'ACC9', and any transaction with the first three characters 'MAN'. The special action taken is to delete temporary storage queues ACCQUEUE and any TS queue with 'ACT' as the first two characters, 'Q' as the 8th character, and the terminal id being timed out in characters 4 through 7 (indicated with '####'). After this is complete, transaction 'CLUP' is started on the terminal being timed out.

Installation
CICS/Timeout is easy to install. Installation time varies from one to three hours including research, etc.

Operating system
CICS/Timeout is written in command level ASSEMBLER. It runs on VSE or MVS with CICS 1.7 and up. It was specifically designed to be light on CPU utilization.

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