The daily edition.

Scope: Rocket Enterprise Developer 12.0 for Eclipse on Linux/UNIX; Enterprise Server CICS-compatible transaction processing.

Enterprise Server exposes several transaction-duration controls that sound similar but respond to different conditions. The critical distinction is that Transaction Threshold is observational, while Runaway Timeout, Input Timeout, and Deadlock Timeout are enforcement controls.

Transaction Threshold measures total elapsed transaction time. When the configured number of seconds is exceeded, Enterprise Server logs a console message; the documentation does not say that the transaction is terminated. Zero disables the threshold. A system-wide value can be established in the System Initialization Table (SIT), then overridden for an individual transaction through its Program Control Table (PCT) entry. This makes the threshold suitable for identifying transactions that finish eventually but exceed an expected service-time envelope. CICS Resources – SIT

Runaway Timeout addresses a different condition: a transaction continuously executing without making a CICS, EZASOKET, or WebSphere MQ API call. Once the interval is exceeded, Enterprise Server abends the transaction. This is aimed at looping or CPU-bound application code rather than a transaction legitimately waiting inside a supported API. The SIT supplies the region default, while the PCT can override it per transaction; zero means no runaway timeout. Active PCT

The DEFINE TRANSACTION form makes the inheritance explicit: RUNAWAY(SYSTEM) uses the SIT value, while a transaction-specific value must be between 1,000 and 270,000 milliseconds on this platform. Values below 1,000 milliseconds are ignored. This is an important migration nuance if a source definition uses a more aggressive interval. DEFINE TRANSACTION

The other timeout controls protect waits rather than processor consumption:

• Input Timeout abends a transaction that waits too long for an operator response to an explicit CICS RECEIVE, WEB OPEN, WEB SEND, WEB RECEIVE, or WEB CONVERSE.
• Deadlock Timeout terminates a suspended task after it has waited too long for a locked resource.
• _Rtimeout is different again: it governs terminal inactivity and automatically signs off the user rather than describing transaction execution time.

ESCWA’s ES Control page can change the displayed region-level timeout values while the region is running, but Rocket warns that those changes are not saved at shutdown; startup reinitializes them from the SIT. ES Control

Takeaway: Use Transaction Threshold to detect slow work and Runaway Timeout to stop non-yielding work—setting one does not provide the behavior of the other.