Using MQ Explorer trace

You can use MQ Explorer trace to find out what happened to cause a problem.

About this task

Note that you normally enable tracing only when asked to do so by your IBM® Service Representative. Tracing slows down MQ Explorer and the trace files can rapidly become large.

When you start the MQ Explorer by using the runwithtrace command, extra parameters are incorporated that enable tracing of MQ Explorer. Note the runwithtrace command takes no parameters itself.

The output location of the trace file is printed to the command line when the command runs because the actual location:
  • Is dependent upon the status of the IBM MQ installation
  • User permissions

The MQ Explorer trace files have a name of the format AMQYYYYMMDDHHmmssmmm.TRC.n that indicates the start time of the trace session. When a trace file reaches its maximum size, the trace facility renames all trace files from the session by incrementing the file suffix .n by one. The trace facility then creates a new file with the suffix .0 that contains the latest trace.

To trace MQ Explorer, complete the following steps.

Procedure

  1. Close MQ Explorer.
  2. On Windows systems, use runwithtrace.cmd to run MQ Explorer with tracing activated.
    The runwithtrace command is in one of the following locations:
    • If you are running the MQ Explorer that was installed as part of a full IBM MQ server installation, the runwithtrace command is in MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH\MQExplorer\Eclipse, where MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH is the IBM MQ installation path.
    • If you installed the MQ Explorer from the MS0T SupportPac, the runwithtrace command is in the same directory as the MQExplorer command.
  3. On Linux® systems, use runwithtrace to run MQ Explorer with tracing activated.
    The runwithtrace command is in one of the following locations:
    • If you are running the MQ Explorer that was installed as part of a full IBM MQ server installation, the runwithtrace command is in /opt/mqm/mqexplorer/eclipse, where opt/mqm is the IBM MQ installation directory.
    • If you installed the MQ Explorer from the MS0T SupportPac, the runwithtrace command is in the same directory as the MQExplorer command.