Tracing QMF activity at the start of a session

QMF provides a trace facility that helps track user activity and any errors that might occur during a user's session. The program parameters explained in this section help you control:

• The level of detail at which QMF activity is traced, including activity before the user's profile is established
• Where trace data is stored

DSQSDBUG (setting the level of trace detail)

Parameter name

DSQSDBUG

Short form

T

Valid values

ALL or NONE

Default

NONE (no trace data)

Use DSQSDBUG to specify the level of detail at which you want to trace QMF activity. If you specify NONE, no trace is performed unless you load a profile with a saved value of ALL. If you specify ALL, ALL overrides the profile values and remains at ALL.

The tracing you set with this parameter is effective until the user issues a SET PROFILE (TRACE=value command to change it, or, in the case of NONE, until the profile is loaded.

Set DSQSDBUG to ALL when you want to trace QMF activity at the highest level of detail, including program initialization errors and other errors that might occur before the user's profile is established:

DSQQMFn T=ALL
QMFn T=ALL

For CICS, when you use a value of ALL, make sure the type of storage queue you choose is large enough to hold the trace output.

When you set DSQSDBUG to NONE, the level of detail in the trace output depends on whether the QMF session is running interactively or noninteractively:

• In either an interactive or a noninteractive session, only system error tracing is done during initialization, before the user's profile is established. The only way to turn off this initial tracing is to not allocate or define storage for the trace data.
• In a noninteractive session, all messages and commands are traced at the most detailed level.

After QMF starts, you can turn tracing off by using the command SET PROFILE (TRACE=NONE. You can also set more specific levels of trace detail using this command, by replacing NONE with various values that represent different QMF functions. See Using the QMF trace facility for more information.

DSQSDBQT (specifying the type of CICS storage for trace data)

Parameter name

DSQSDBQT

Short form

(no short form)

Valid values

TD or TS

Default

TD (transient data queue)

Use DSQSDBQT to indicate the type of CICS storage you want to use for trace data. Specify the value TS to use a CICS auxiliary temporary storage queue for tracing:

QMFn DSQSDBQT=TS

Use temporary storage (TS) for message-level tracing. For other types of tracing, such as ALL, consider using a transient data queue if you think the trace output might exceed 32, 767 rows of data (the limit for CICS temporary storage queues).

A transient data queue named DSQD is predefined for you during QMF installation. If you use the DSQSDBQN parameter to name the transient data queue something other than DSQD, you must predefine the queue to CICS before you use it for the first time.

For more information on specifying the amount of detail in the QMF trace and viewing trace data, see Using the QMF trace facility.

DSQSDBQN (specifying the name of the CICS storage for trace data)

Parameter name

DSQSDBQN

Short form

(no short form)

Valid values

Any name that follows CICS naming conventions for queues

Default

DSQD

DSQSDBQN specifies the name of the transient data or temporary storage queue that holds trace data. A transient data queue named DSQD is predefined for you in the CICS DCT.

If you specify transient data for DSQSDBQT and you want to name the queue something other than DSQD, define the queue in the CICS DCT if it is not yet available.

Ensure the queue name conforms to CICS specifications for the type of queue specified by DSQSDBQT. TD queues have names from 1 to 4 characters. TS queues have names from 1 to 8 characters.

You do not need to predefine temporary storage queues to CICS. For example, the following statement dynamically allocates a temporary storage queue named MYTRACE to hold trace data for the QMF session:

QMFn DSQSDBQN=MYTRACE,DSQSDBQT=TS

QMF issues CICS ENQ and DEQ commands around single trace entries in the queue, so that a single queue can be used by more than one user.