Collect troubleshooting data for a wait or loop in CICS TS for z/OS

Resolving The Problem

For the most up-to-date documentation, refer to Collecting CICS troubleshooting data (MustGather) for IBM Support in the CICS TS documentation. You will find the General information you should gather for every type of problem followed by the Component-specific information which includes Troubleshooting data for wait or loop problems.

The following is the original MustGather information:

• Collecting general information for all problems
• Collecting data for (component) problems
• Troubleshooting hints and tips
• Exchanging data with IBM Support


• Collect troubleshooting data for CICS products - Read first

Collecting general information for all problems

If you have already contacted IBM Support, you can continue on to the component-specific MustGather information. Otherwise, go to Collect troubleshooting data for CICS products - Read first.

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• CICS internal trace that is included in the MVS system dump when tracing is active. The trace should be at least 10240K and when possible level 1 tracing should be on for all CICS components.
  
  
• An MVS system dump of the CICS region taken as soon as you notice the hang or wait. Use the following MVS command followed by the reply to capture the dump:
  
  DUMP COMM=(dumpname)
   R yy,JOBNAME=( cicsjob),
   SDATA=(ALLNUC,PSA,SQA,CSA,LPA,TRT,LSQA,RGN)
  
  where dumpname is the name you want to give the dump, yy is the reply id, and cicsjob is the job name of your CICS region.
  
  
• CPU utilization for the CICS region. Enter S.DA when using SDSF under TSO, to display the active CICS job. Enter PF11 to display the CPU% which is the percent of CPU time used on behalf of this address space during the most recent interval measured.

• CICS message log containing the last message created by CICS and the time the message was created.
  
  
• If you are able to recreate the problem, consider using CICS auxiliary trace or GTF Trace in combination with the MVS system dump. The dump is unlikely to tell you anything about system activity in the period leading up to the wait or loop. This is because the trace table will probably wrap before you have had a chance to respond.

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Troubleshooting hints and tips

• Review the logs and dumps generated at the point of failure.
• Search the CICS support site for known problems using symptoms like the message number and error codes.
• If you find a fixing PTF, see Ordering CICS products and maintenance for the options that are available to order CICS maintenance.
• Gather the documentation and work with the CICS support team to resolve your problem.
  
  

• Distinguishing between waits, loops, and poor performance

1. See Exchanging information with IBM Technical Support for FTP and email instructions using the IBM Enhanced Customer Data Repository (ECuRep).
   
2. Go to the Service Request page to open or update a problem. If you have a SoftwareXcel enterprise edition for zSeries contract, you can also ask a non-defect installation and usage questions.
   
   Note: Always update your Service Request (problem record) to indicate that data has been sent.

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