Customizing ABEND dump contents

The ddname of the data set for the ABEND dump determines how the contents can be customized. The system determines the contents of a particular ABEND dump from the options list the system maintains for the type of dump. The dump options list can be customized, cumulatively, by all the ways shown in the following tables; thus, for example, a SYSMDUMP ABEND dump written for an ABEND macro can be completely different from the default SYSMDUMP ABEND dump described in this document.

For more information about the topics described in this section, see the following references:

See z/OS MVS Initialization and Tuning Reference for parmlib members.
See z/OS MVS System Commands for the CHNGDUMP operator command.
See z/OS MVS Programming: Assembler Services Reference ABE-HSP and z/OS MVS Programming: Assembler Services Reference IAR-XCT for the ABEND, SETRP, SNAP, SNAPX, ESTAE, ESTAEX, and ATTACH or ATTACHX with ESTAI macros.
See z/OS MVS Programming: Authorized Assembler Services Reference SET-WTO and z/OS MVS Programming: Authorized Assembler Services Reference ALE-DYN for the SETRP and CALLRTM macros.
See z/OS MVS Installation Exits for the IEAVTABX, IEAVADFM, and IEAVADUS installation exits.

Recommendations for customizing ABEND dumps: How an installation customizes dumps should depend on the usual use of each type of dump. The IBM-supplied dump options for ABEND dumps are designed for the following uses:

SYSABEND dumps: For diagnosis of complex errors in any program running under the operating system
SYSMDUMP dumps: For diagnosis of system problems when the dump is requested in a program
SYSUDUMP dumps: For diagnosis of program problems needing simple problem data

For SYSUDUMP dumps, the IBM-supplied IEADMP00 member specifies the default contents as only a summary dump. An installation should consider using the IEADMP00 member as supplied, because it offers a small dump for simple problems.

Program areas in dumps: To request a meaningful dump for a particular program, code an ABEND macro that points to a macro parameter list. Specify in the list the data areas that are needed to diagnose the abnormally ending program but that are not specified in the parmlib member for the dump. Two examples are:

If the task that is ending has subtasks and they might cause an error, specify PDATA=SUBTASKS in the macro parameter list to dump the subtasks.
To see only the subpools used by the program, specify the subpool numbers in a SUBPLST option for a SYSABEND dump. The SPLS option, which is a default for SYSABEND dumps, writes all user subpools. Leaving SPLS in the dump options may make the dump bigger than needed. Note that SUBPLST in the macro parameter list overrides SPLS in the current dump options.

Nucleus areas in dumps: Dump options control the parts of the nucleus that appear in a dump. A diagnostician seldom needs to analyze all of the nucleus. An installation can eliminate nucleus areas from dumps. If the IBM-supplied defaults are used, an SYSMDUMP ABEND dump contains the read/write DAT-on nucleus.

An installation can obtain one copy of the DAT-off nucleus to use in any problem by entering a DUMP operator command.

The ABEND dump options that control dumping of the nucleus areas are:

Option: Nucleus aArea
SDATA=NUC: Read/write DAT-on nucleus
SDATA=ALLNUC: All of the DAT-on nucleus: read/write and read-only