SNA topology manager traces

The topology manager has various traces that are used by IBM® Software Support to diagnose problems. The operator can control the events and types of data to be traced by using the TOPOSNA TRACE command. This data can be traced externally or internally by using the TOPOSNA TRACE,MODE=xxx command, where xxx is EXT or INT (the default).

The TOPOSNA TRACE command can be issued at any time, even when the topology manager is not active. This enables you to turn on traces before starting the topology manager so that initialization events can be traced. The trace settings are not changed by the starting or stopping of the topology manager.

The types of events that are traced, along with the format of the trace records, is unique for the topology manager. The trace information is used by IBM Software Support to diagnose problems reported by customers. The availability of trace information significantly helps when IBM Software Support is diagnosing a problem.

The trace events are grouped into trace categories. These trace categories are turned on or off by the commands. A topology manager trace record is created when an event occurs, its associated trace category is turned on. For external tracing (TOPOSNA TRACE,MODE=EXT), the topology manager GTF event ID (X'05E8') must be enabled in GTF. The TOPOSNA TRACE command is fully described in NetView® online help.

The description of the command describes the trace categories available for the topology manager. Most trace categories cause significant amounts of trace data to be captured, possibly affecting performance of the topology manager and overflowing the GTF trace buffer. The amount of data captured by the trace categories can be limited by the use of the CLASS parameter.

These trace categories, along with any data that can be gathered with a VTAM® CMIP services trace, capture the trace information most useful when reporting problems to IBM Software Support.