Specifying the source of the dump

The first step in analyzing the dump is to specify the source of the dump that IPCS should format. In the IPCS dialog (see Figure 1), choose option 0 (DEFAULTS) and specify the name of the SVC dump data set on the “Source” line.

Figure 1. IPCS Default Values menu

 ------------------------- IPCS Default Values --------------------------------- 
 COMMAND ===> 0


   You may change any of the defaults listed below.
   If you change the Source default, IPCS will display the current default
   Address Space for the new source and will ignore any data entered in
   the Address Space field.

   Source  ==> DSN('D46IPCS.SVC.CSVLLA.DUMP002') 
   Address Space   ==>                        Ignored if Source is changed. 
   Message Routing ==> NOPRINT TERMINAL 
   Message Control ==> FLAG(WARNING) 
   Display Content ==> NOMACHINE REMARK REQUEST NOSTORAGE SYMBOL 

 Press ENTER to update defaults.
 Use the END command to exit without an update.

Press Enter to register the new default source name. Then, press PF3 to exit the panel.

You can also use the SETDEF subcommand to specify the source. For the dump in the preceding example, enter:

SETDEF DSNAME('D46IPCS.SVC.CSVLLA.DUMP002')

IPCS does not initialize the dump until you enter the first subcommand or IPCS dialog option that performs formatting or analysis. At that time IPCS issues message BLS18160D to ask you if summary dump data can be used by IPCS. The summary dump data should always be used for an SVC dump because it is the data captured closest to the time of the failure. If you do not allow IPCS to use summary dump data, other data captured later for the same locations will be displayed, if available. Such data is less likely to be representative of the actual data at these storage locations at the time of the failure.