Wouldn't you want a DB2 JDBC Driver trace that can survive WebSphere Application Server on z/OS recylce?

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Recently, I faced a challenge in debugging a problem where the Java Data Base Connectivity (JDBC) trace is either overwritten or lost upon the WebSphere Application Server recycle on z/OS.

Specifying the JDBC trace file with the default options provided by the DB2 Universal JDBC Driver data source Custom properties settings, (which you would normally do) will cause the driver to create a new JDBC trace file if the server is recycled.

With many installations using the Automatic restart manager (ARM) facility for the servers, if we had a situation where the server running with the jdbc driver trace abends due to a JDBC driver issue, the jdbc trace is lost upon server restart.

Sometimes regardless of server abends, some shops need the jdbc driver trace to sustain server restarts.

The way to achieve this is to specify the DB2 Universal JDBC Driver data source Custom properties settings as shown in the example below:

From the Admin Console
Resources > JDBC > Data sources > DB2 Universal JDBC Driver DataSource > Custom properties
traceLevel                -1   
traceFile                   /tmp/jdbctrace     (this path could be your choice)
traceFileAppend     true    
traceDirectory          <blank>                (if you specify a path for this property, a new file is generated for every DB2 JDBC jcc connection)

I hope you found this useful and let me know if you have any comments or questions.