You might want to issue messages to the MVS master console to report serious error conditions for mission-critical applications. Through the master console, an operator can receive and, if necessary, take action in response to a message that indicates the status of an application. In addition, by directing messages to the master console, you can trigger automation packages to take action for specific conditions or events related to your application's processing.
Any messages that your application issues to the console also appear in either the error log stream or the CTRACE data set for WebSphere Application Server for z/OS, depending on the message type. Logging the messages in these system resources can help you more easily diagnose errors related to your application's processing. Similarly, issuing requests to log trace data in the CTRACE data set is another method of recording error conditions or collecting application data for diagnostic purposes.