Starting and controlling auxiliary trace

You may need to use auxiliary trace data sets to avoid the loss of diagnostic information, because internal trace table entries wrap around. When the end of the internal trace table is reached, subsequent entries overwrite those at the start of the table. To get a trace of CICS® activity in which trace entries are not overwritten, use the auxiliary trace data sets. This can be particularly useful if you are using CICS trace during startup, because of the high volume of trace entries written when CICS is initializing.

You can start CICS tracing at initialization by coding system initialization parameters; you can also specify which of the three destinations you want CICS to use. The following is a summary of the trace system initialization parameters that you can code:

Keyword
Description
AUXTR
Switches auxiliary trace on or off at CICS startup.
AUXTRSW
Specifies automatic switching for auxiliary trace data sets when full.
INTTR
Switches internal trace on or off at CICS startup.
GTFTR
Specifies whether CICS is to use GTF as a destination for CICS trace data.
SPCTR
Specifies the level of special tracing.
SPCTRxx
Specifies the level of special tracing for the "xx" component.
STNTR
Specifies the level of CICS standard tracing.
STNTRxx
Specifies the level of standard tracing for the "xx" component.
SYSTR
Switches the system master trace flag on or off at CICS startup.
TRTABSZ
Defines the size of the CICS internal trace table.
USERTR
Switches the user trace flag on or off at CICS startup.

For more information about these system initialization parameters, and how to code them, see Specifying CICS system initialization parameters.

You can also control CICS tracing by means of the CICS-supplied transactions CETR and CEMT. (Note that you cannot use CETR through an MVS™ console.) For guidance information about the CICS control options available with CETR and CEMT, see CICS Supplied Transactions.

[[ Contents Previous Page | Next Page Index ]]