It is not possible to give specific advice on dealing with this sort
of problem, but the points and techniques that follow should help you to find
the area where the failure is occurring.
- Make sure you can define exactly what happened, and how this differs from
what you expected to happen.
- Check the commands you are using for accuracy and completeness. For programming
information about EXEC CICS® commands, see the CICS Application Programming Reference manual. Are any default values the ones you really want? Does the description
of the effect of each command match your expectations?
- Can you identify a failing sequence of commands? If so, can it be reproduced
using CECI?
- Consider the resources required by the application. Are they defined as
expected?
- Are the required functions in the failing functional area available in
this system?
- For "input" type requests, does the item exist? You can verify
this using offline utilities.
- For "output" type requests, is the item created? Verify that the
before and after images are as expected.
Using traces and dumps
Traces and dumps can give you valuable information about unusual conditions
that might be causing your application to work in an unexpected way.
- If the path through the transaction is indeterminate, insert user trace
entries at all the principal points.
- If you know the point in the code where the failure occurs, insert a CICS
system dump request immediately after it.
- Use CETR to select special tracing for the level-1 trace points for all
components. Select special tracing for the failing task only, and disable
all standard tracing by setting the master system trace flag off.
- Run the transaction after setting the trace options, and wait until the
system dump request is executed. Format the internal trace table from the
dump (formatting keyword TR), and examine the trace entries before the failure.
Look in particular for unusual or unexpected conditions, possibly ones that
the application is not designed to handle.
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