The following restrictions apply to the use of the External CICS Interface:
- The COBOL service and the CICS program it calls must be running in the same enterprise server. The EXEC CICS LINK command takes the APPLID() operand, which is used to specify a remote server on which the CICS program resides, but it is ignored.
- The EXEC CICS LINK command takes the SYNCONRETURN() operand, which is used to specify that the MSS enterprise server is to take a syncpoint on successful completion of the server program. This operand is ignored. You can only use the EXCI interface from a container-managed service. The resources updated by the CICS program should not be committed or rolled back until the container-managed service is complete so that the CICS resources remain coordinated with those of the calling service.
- The CICS program should not issue explicit EXEC CICS SYNCPOINT commands. Results will be unpredictable and might leave resources in an inconsistent state.
