Formatting CICSPlex SM dumps with IPCS

The z/OS® interactive problem control system (IPCS) is an interactive facility for diagnosing software failures. CICSPlex® SM provides a dump formatting routine that you can use with the IPCS VERBEXIT command to format CMAS or MAS dumps. The formatting routine lets you process a dump selectively by identifying one or more CMAS or MAS components as parameters to the exit. You can either view the dumps at your terminal or print them. Workstation dumps cannot be handled by IPCS.

For more information about IPCS, see the z/OS MVS IPCS User's Guide. To format system dumps using IPCS, see Dump utilities (DFHDUnnn and DFHPDnnn).

Note:
  • This dump formatting routine should be used only at the request of IBM Support.
  • If you are asked to send a copy of an SDUMP to support, you must send the unformatted dump.
  • To distinguish between problems in the MAS agent code and problems in the underlying CICS® system, IBM Support might also ask you to format a MAS dump by using the CICS dump formatting routine, DFHPDnnn, where nnn is a release identifier. For example, this utility is DFHPD760 for beta. For more information about this routine, see Dump utilities (DFHDUnnn and DFHPDnnn).

How is the CICSPlex SM dump formatting routine supplied

The routine is supplied as module EYU9Dnnn, where nnn is a release identifier. The routine can also be identified to IPCS as CPSMnnn if you have installed the member CICSTSnn.CPSM.SEYUPARM(EYUIPCSP) where CICSTSnn is the number of your release. For example, the member is CICSTS64.CPSM.SEYUPARM(EYUIPCSP) for beta.

You can specify either name with the VERBEXIT command. For example, you can specify either EYU9D640 or CPSM640 if your CICSPlex SM is at beta.

Using VERBEXIT to format a CICSPlex SM SDUMP

Command syntax
The syntax of the VERBEXIT command is as follows: 
VERBEXIT CPSMnnn 'JOB=jobname,compid1,...,compidn,option,DLCT=nn...n,QID=nn...n'
Parameters
JOB=jobname
Identifies which CICSPlex SM address space in the dump is to be formatted. If this parameter is omitted, the first CICSPlex SM address space found is formatted.
If no additional parameters are specified, the formatting routine does the following:
  • Locates the selected address space.
  • If the address space is a MAS, displays the CICS exit processing block.
  • If DMDSxxxx data spaces are found in the dump, attempts to create equate symbol records (ESRs) for the data cache list tables (DCLTs) and all CPSM ALET values.

The ESRs created by this routine can be used to display data space storage by the ALET value and offset found in any CICSPlex SM control block. ESRs for the ALETs are in the form EYURECnnnnnnnn, where nnnnnnnn is the ALET value. To browse storage, use standard IPCS commands, such as L EYURECnnnnnnnn+yyyy, where yyyy is the offset into the data space.

compid1,…,compidn
Identifies one or more specific CICSPlex SM components for which dump data is to be formatted. If no component IDs are specified, only the CICSPlex SM Kernel Linkage anchor block (XLWA) is formatted. For a list of component identifiers, see Reference: CICSPlex SM common components.
For individual components, you can control the level of information that is produced by specifying compid=n, where n is one of the following:
1
Displays summary information, including a summary of CICS tasks for the component.
Note: For the Trace Services (TRC) component, this option formats only the exception trace records.
2
Displays detailed information, including the MODB, the MOEB, and all kernel linkage information for the component.
3
Displays both summary and detailed information for the component.

If no level is specified, both summary and detailed information are produced (or, in the case of Trace Services, all trace records are formatted).

option
Requests additional non-component related information. The following options are supported:
ESSS
Displays the ESSS address space control blocks.
LOCKS
Displays a summary of resource locks.
QLIST
Displays a summary of all allocated queues. Requires that the QUE data spaces be present in the dump.
TASKS
Displays a summary of CICS tasks for all CICSPlex SM components.
DCLT=nn...n
Identifies the DCLT to be displayed. DCLT identifiers, which are defined by the CPSMnnn formatting routine as ESRs, can be from 12 to 16 bytes in length. (When the DCLT identifier is less than 16 bytes long, leading zeroes are assumed).

The DCLT control block and all elements associated with the DCLT are displayed. Each DCLT element is displayed as a separate block of storage.

Note: Both the data cache data space (DMDSxxxx) and the component data spaces containing cache list elements must be included in the dump for this routine to work properly. If the dump was produced by CICSPlex SM as the result of an abend, the required data spaces may not be present. If, however, the data spaces are explicitly requested by a user, rather than by CICSPlex SM, the processing should complete successfully.
QID=nn...n
Formats the selected data queue, showing the data queue service blocks, data queue record locate blocks, and the data queue record areas. The value nn...n is the 16-character data queue identifier.

Examples

The following examples show the command that is used to format dump data for specific components of a CMAS. All the examples assume that the CICSPlex SM is at beta.

Example 1
In this example, the address space to be formatted is EYUCMS1A. Dump data is produced for the Topology Services (TOP), real-time analysis (RTA), and Monitor Services (MON) components. For the Monitor Services component, only summary information is displayed. In addition to the component information, the ESSS control blocks are displayed. 
VERBEXIT CPSM640 'JOB=EYUCMS1A,TOP,RTA,MON=1,ESSS'
Example 2: Obtain all available output for Monitor Services, real-time analysis, or Workload Manager

To obtain all available output for Monitor Services, real-time analysis, or Workload Manager, the format request must include the Topology Services component. Those components have areas anchored within the Topology Services control blocks. 

VERBX CPSM640 'TOP,WLM'

To obtain complete output, all data spaces associated with the selected components must be present in the dump.

For the Monitor Services component, the MAS1xxxx data space must be present, in addition to the TOP1xxxx and MON1xxxx data spaces; if it is not present, the output is incomplete.

CICSPlex SM SDUMP summaries

Submitting the CPSMnnn VERBEXIT to run in background produces summaries, as follows:
  • Control block index, sorted by:
    • Area ID
    • Address space ID
    • Data space name
    • Location (either area address or data space offset)
  • Control block index, sorted by:
    • Address space ID
    • Data space name
    • Location (either area address or data space offset)
  • Message index, containing the location of all messages.

    The index contains a section of error message data and a section of informational message data. Each section contains a list of error messages sorted by message ID, and the page numbers of the output pages containing the message.