System dumps

CICS® produces a system dump using the MVS™ SDUMP macro.

The MVS SDUMP dump results from CICS issuing an MVS SDUMP macro. It includes almost the entire CICS address space, that is, the MVS nucleus and other common areas, as well as the CICS private storage areas. The SDUMP dump is written to an MVS dump data set, which you can process using the interactive problem control system (IPCS), either online under TSO, or by submitting a batch job to print it. IPCS is described in the z/OS MVS IPCS User's Guide. For information about the IPCS VERBEXIT parameters that you use with the CICS IPCS dump exit, see Using IPCS to format and analyze CICS dumps: Overview. For information about the SDUMP macro, and the associated MVS dump data sets, see z/OS MVS Diagnosis: Tools and Service Aids.

The SDUMP macros issued by CICS normally contain the QUIESCE=NO parameter. They might not if the SDUMP is taken because of an abend in CICS SVC code or when altering MRO control blocks. This parameter allows the MVS system to remain dispatchable while the SDUMP is being taken, thus reducing the impact on the system. However if QUIESCE=YES is specified as an MVS system default it will override that specified by CICS. These defaults can be altered by using the MVS CHNGDUMP command.