Using traces in problem determination

This section describes the types of general and specialized trace available to you for problem determination, how to control the amount of tracing that CICS® produces, and how to format and interpret tracing.

The following types of tracing can be used for CICS systems:
  • CICS tracing, which is performed by the trace domain at predetermined trace points in CICS code during the regular flow of control. This includes user tracing from applications. You get this when you turn on CICS internal tracing, auxiliary tracing, and GTF tracing. You control this type of tracing to suit your needs, except that, when an exception condition is detected by CICS, it always makes an exception trace entry. You cannot turn exception tracing off.
  • CICS exit programming interface (XPI) tracing, which uses the TRACE_PUT XPI call from an exit program. You can control this within the exit program, or by enabling and disabling exits.
  • Program check and abend tracing, which is used by CICS to record pertinent information when a program check or abend occurs. This is controlled by CICS code.
  • CICS z/OS® Communications Server exit tracing. The exits are driven by the Communications Server when it reaches a particular stage in its asynchronous processing, but the trace points are in CICS code. You can turn CICS Communications Server exit tracing on or off.
  • Communications Server buffer tracing. This is a part of the Communications Server, but it can be used to record the flow of data between logical units in the CICS environment. You can control this type of tracing to meet your needs.
In addition to the general trace produced by CICS, there are a number of other, more specialized forms of trace that you can use. These are:
  • CICS exception tracing
  • Program check and abend tracing
  • CICS Communications Server tracing
  • FEPI trace.

For information about using trace to solve FEPI problems, see FEPI trace.

You have a large amount of control over the amount of CICS tracing that is done. There are a number of selection mechanisms available to you to control the extent of CICS tracing carried out in the system. These are:

You can select any combination of internal tracing, auxiliary tracing and GTF tracing to be active at the same time. Your choice has no effect on the selectivity with which system tracing is done, but each type of tracing has a set of characteristic properties. These properties are described in Internal trace table, Auxiliary trace data sets, and Generalized Trace Facility (GTF).