fteRAS (collect MFT troubleshooting information)

The fteRAS command collects troubleshooting information (MustGather data) for the Managed File Transfer configuration and logging entities on the system where the command is run.

Purpose

Use the fteRAS command to run the Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability information (RAS) gathering tool if you need to collect troubleshooting information to use to help find a solution when a Managed File Transfer agent, database logger or other command is reporting a problem or failing to work properly.
Warning: If there are a large number of Managed File Transfer agents configured on the server, the fteRAS command can take a long time to complete. If that happens, you can choose to compress the contents of the Managed File Transfer agent's logs and configuration directories into a zip file.

When you run the fteRAS command, the output directory in which the resulting archive (.zip) file is placed can be either the default location, or a directory of your choosing.

[MQ 9.2.4 Nov 2021]

Progress information displayed about the fteRAS command while it is running

From IBM® MQ 9.2.4, the output of the fteRAS command to the console has been enhanced, so that you can see the progress of the command while it is running, by displaying the following information:
  • The start time and end time of each step in the format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss, where the time zone is the local time zone
  • The total number of files getting copied to a temporary folder from the configuration, log, installations, and bin directories in the step FTEConfigLogsCollector
  • The size of the data being compressed
  • A counter of the number of bytes compressed
  • A counter of the total percentage compressed

[MQ 9.2.5 Feb 2022]From IBM MQ 9.2.5, the output of the fteRAS command also includes subscription information. This information shows the number of messages received for agents, resource monitors. and scheduled transfers. It also shows the number of resource monitor definitions saved to the file system.

The following example shows a sample run from the command:[MQ 9.2.5 Feb 2022]

C:\Users\Administrator>fteRAS
5724-H72 Copyright IBM Corp.  2008, 2025.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
BFGCL0819I: Collector FTEDirectoryListingCollector started at 2022-01-03 15:37:44 India Standard Time.
BFGCL0820I: Collector FTEDirectoryListingCollector completed at 2022-01-03 15:38:38 India Standard Time.

BFGCL0819I: Collector FTEListAgentsCollector started at 2022-01-03 15:38:38 India Standard Time.
BFGMQ1046I: Fetching messages from subscription to topic string 'Agents/#'. Number of messages received: '9'
BFGCL0820I: Collector FTEListAgentsCollector completed at 2022-01-03 15:38:49 India Standard Time.

BFGCL0819I: Collector FTEDisplayVersionCollector started at 2022-01-03 15:38:49 India Standard Time.
BFGCL0820I: Collector FTEDisplayVersionCollector completed at 2022-01-03 15:38:50 India Standard Time.

BFGCL0819I: Collector FTEListMonitorsCollector started at 2022-01-03 15:38:50 India Standard Time.
BFGMQ1046I: Fetching messages from subscription to topic string 'monitors/#'. Number of messages received: '6'
BFGCL0827I: 6 of 6 resource monitor definitions saved to file system.
BFGCL0820I: Collector FTEListMonitorsCollector completed at 2022-01-03 15:39:19 India Standard Time.

BFGCL0819I: Collector FTEListScheduledTransfersCollector started at 2022-01-03 15:39:19 India Standard Time.
BFGMQ1046I: Fetching messages from subscription to topic string 'Scheduler/#'. Number of messages received: '9'
BFGCL0820I: Collector FTEListScheduledTransfersCollector completed at 2022-01-03 15:39:20 India Standard Time.

BFGCL0819I: Collector FTETopicSubscriptionCollector started at 2022-01-03 15:39:20 India Standard Time.
BFGCL0820I: Collector FTETopicSubscriptionCollector completed at 2022-01-03 15:41:11 India Standard Time.

BFGCL0819I: Collector FTEConfigLogsCollector started at 2022-01-03 15:41:11 India Standard Time.
BFGCL0822I: Copying 8041 file(s) from 'config' directory to a temporary directory.
BFGCL0822I: Copying 8785 file(s) from 'logs' directory to a temporary directory.
BFGCL0821I: Copying file(s) from 'bin' directory to a temporary directory.
BFGCL0822I: Copying 1 file(s) from 'installations' directory to a temporary directory.
BFGCL0820I: Collector FTEConfigLogsCollector completed at 2022-01-03 15:42:21 India Standard Time.

BFGCL0606I: fteRAS command is compressing the output.
BFGCL0823I: Total size of data to compress '1394633' bytes.
BFGCL0824I: Compressed '1394633' bytes. Compression '100%' completed.
BFGCL0604I: fteRAS command completed successfully.  Output is stored in C:\ProgramData\IBM\MQ\mqft\logs\fteRAS.zip.\fteRAS.zip.

Syntax

fteRAS

Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram fteRAS -p configuration_options-lpds_library_name
Security
Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram-mquseriduser_id-mqpasswordpassword
Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagramoutput_directory

Parameters

-p configuration_options

Optional. Specifies the set of configuration options that are used to gather troubleshooting information. Use that set of configuration options as the value for the -p parameter. By convention, the value of the -p parameter is the name of the associated coordination queue manager. If you do not provide the -p parameter, the system uses a default set of configuration options. For more information on the default set of configuration options, see The MFT installation.properties file.

[z/OS]-l pds_library_name
Optional. z/OS® only. Specifies the name of a PDS library that contains JCL scripts that invoke MQMFT commands for a particular agent or logger. This option is always set when the command is run from a command PDS library's BFGZRAS JCL script, such that all members of the PDS library are captured in the output directory.
Note: BFGZRAS creates the BFGRAS member when the BFGCUSTM job is run.
-mquserid user_id
Optional. Specifies the user ID to authenticate with the command queue manager.
-mqpassword password
Optional. Specifies the password to authenticate with the command queue manager. You must also specify the -mquserid parameter. If you specify -mquserid but do not also specify -mqpassword, you are prompted to supply the associated password. The password is not displayed on the screen.
output_directory
Optional. A directory to use when you are gathering the RAS data, and where the output file, for example fteRAS.zip, is stored after the data is gathered successfully. If the directory does not exist, it is created. The default location is the mqft logs directory.
-? or -h
Optional. Displays command syntax.

Examples

[AIX][Linux]On AIX® and Linux®, to store the output file fteRAS.zip in the /var/mqm/errors directory, run fteRAS as shown in the following example:
fteRAS /var/mqm/errors
The following message confirms that the command has completed successfully:
BFGCL0604I: fteRAS command completed successfully. Output is stored in /var/mqm/errors/fteRAS.zip
[Windows]On Windows, to store the output file fteRAS.zip in the default errors directory for a new installation of IBM MQ, run fteRAS as shown in the following example:
fteRAS "C:\ProgramData\IBM\MQ\errors"
The following message confirms that the command has completed successfully:
BFGCL0604I: fteRAS command completed successfully. Output is stored in C:\ProgramData\IBM\MQ\errors\fteRAS.zip
Note: For IBM MQ 8.0 or later, if this is not a new installation of that version of the product, the location of the errors directory might be different on your system. For more information, see Program and data directory locations on Windows.
[IBM i]On IBM i, to copy the output file to /QIBM/UserData/mqm/errors, run the fteRAS command from the Qshell as shown in the following example:
/QIBM/ProdData/mqm/bin/fteRAS /QIBM/UserData/mqm/errors
The following message confirms that the command has completed successfully:
BFGCL0604I: fteRAS command completed successfully. Output is stored in /QIBM/UserData/mqm/errors/fteRAS.zip