Any CMAS or local MAS can produce symptom strings in a system or transaction dump. Symptom strings describe a program failure and the environment in which the failure occurred. All CICSPlex® SM symptom strings conform to the RETAIN® symptom string architecture. They are stored as SYMREC records in the SYS1.LOGREC data set.
A symptom string provides a number of keywords that can be directly keyed in and used to search the RETAIN database. If you have access to the IBM® INFORMATION/ACCESS licensed program, 5665-266, you can search the RETAIN database yourself. If you report a problem to the IBM Support Center, you are likely to be asked to quote the symptom string.
Although symptom strings are designed as input for searching the RETAIN database, they can also give you information about what was happening at the time the error occurred. This information might point to an obvious cause for the problem, or a promising area in which to start your investigation.
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