Documentation needed for problem diagnosis

After the proper diagnostic procedures have been followed, user specifications have been checked for accuracy, and the keyword search has proven unsuccessful, contact the IBM® Support Center for further assistance.

If the Support Center representatives cannot immediately solve the problem, they may pass the problem call to the Level 2 support group. When the support group representatives call you, they will request that you have certain documentation at hand to aid in the diagnosis of the problem.

When you speak with the representative from the Level 2 support group, you will need to have immediate access to the following documentation:

The PDA trace, preferably in a form that can be browsed online.
An unformatted dump, obtained as a SYS1.DUMP or SYSMDUMP. A SYS1.DUMP is preferred because it supports the dump analysis elimination function, which prevents duplicate dumps occurring for the same problem. For a description of how to use the SETSYS SYS1DUMP command, refer to the DFSMShsm section of z/OS DFSMSdfp Storage Administration.

The dump is available for browsing online by the Interactive Problem Control System (IPCS). In general, the Level 2 support can work with other forms of dumps including hardcopy, but their use of other forms of dumps may seriously impact the effectiveness of diagnostic efforts. Softcopy, raw format dumps, traces, and logs are generally more useful for the support group when it becomes necessary to open an APAR.

Because it is possible that the support group may need additional documentation, either to pursue problem diagnosis or to open an APAR, you should keep the following documentation for possible future use:

The system console log from around the time the problem first occurred.
The portion of the journal pertaining to the problem.
The related function statistics records (FSRs), daily statistics records (DSRs), and volume statistics records (VSRs) from System Management Facility (SMF). You can use the SETSYS SMF command to extract these records.
The command activity log, if appropriate.
The function-specific activity log, if appropriate.

Retain these logs and journals until you are sure that they are no longer needed.