Enabling automatic dump data capture from related CICS regions

It is possible to collect dump data simultaneously from all related CICS® regions in a sysplex. Related CICS regions are those containing one or more tasks which have unit of work identifiers, in the form of APPC tokens, that match the unit of work identifiers in the CICS region which initially issued the dump request. The function is controlled by the DUMPSCOPE option on each CICS dump table entry.

Before you begin

The CICS regions must be connected via XCF/MRO. Connections using the z/OS Communications Server (SNA) ISC are not eligible to use the related dump facility.

About this task

To enable automatic dump data capture from related CICS regions for a dump table entry, you must set the DUMPSCOPE option to RELATED. The DUMPSCOPE option can take either of the following values:
RELATED
Take dumps for all related CICS regions across the sysplex.
If the DUMPSCOPE option is set to RELATED in the CICS region issuing the dump request, a request for a system dump is sent to all z/OS images in the sysplex that run related CICS regions.
LOCAL
Take dumps for the requesting CICS region only. This is the default.
The DUMPSCOPE option is available on the following main terminal and system programming commands:
  • EXEC CICS INQUIRE SYSDUMPCODE
  • EXEC CICS SET SYSDUMPCODE
  • EXEC CICS INQUIRE TRANDUMPCODE
  • EXEC CICS SET TRANDUMPCODE
  • CEMT INQUIRE SYDUMPCODE
  • CEMT SET SYDUMPCODE
  • CEMT INQUIRE TRDUMPCODE
  • CEMT SET TRDUMPCODE

Result

The local z/OS image running the CICS region that initiated the dump request has two dumps - one of the originating CICS region, the other containing the originating CICS region and up to fourteen additional related CICS regions from the local z/OS image.

When a dump is requested, the DUMPSCOPE option is tested only in the CICS region issuing the original dump request. If the requesting CICS region has DUMPSCOPE defined as RELATED for the dump code, then all related CICS regions are dumped even if they have DUMPSCOPE defined as LOCAL for the dump code.

There is a maximum of fifteen address spaces in an SDUMP. If there are more than fifteen related CICS regions on a z/OS image, then not all of them will be dumped. Related CICS regions may also fail to be dumped if they are swapped out when the dump request is issued. You should consider whether to make certain CICS regions non-swappable as a result.