ABEND dump

An ABEND dump shows the virtual storage predominately for an unauthorized program. Typically, a dump is requested when the program cannot continue processing and abnormally ends. An operator can also request an ABEND dump while ending a program or an address space.

The system can produce three types of ABEND dumps, one unformatted dump (SYSMDUMP) and two formatted dumps (SYSABEND and SYSUDUMP). These dumps are produced when a program cannot continue processing and a DD statement for an ABEND dump was included in the JCL for the job step that has ended. The data included is dependent on:

Parameters supplied in the IEAABD00, IEADMR00, and IEADMP00 parmlib members for SYSABENDs, SYSMDUMPs, and SYSUDUMPs, respectively.
A determination by the system
ABEND, CALLRTM, or SETRP macro dump options
IEAVTABX, IEAVADFM, or IEAVADUS installation exit processing

IBM® recommends the use of SYSMDUMP, the unformatted dump. Unformatted dumping is more efficient because only the storage requested is written to the data set, which allows the application to capture diagnostic data and be brought back online faster. Also, pre-formatted dumps force the system to select a single set of reports, too many for the diagnosis of many problems, and too few for others. Unformatted dumps allow the analyst to determine, from a wide variety of reports, what information to use and how it is presented.

Use SYSUDUMP for diagnosis of program problems that need simple problem data. A SYSABEND dump, through the IBM supplied defaults, supplies more of the system information related to the application program's processing than a SYSUDUMP. The additional information may be better suited for complex problem diagnosis.

This section covers the following topics, which describe how to use ABEND dumps: