Starting and stopping BPE external tracing

To start the BPE external trace, you must specify EXTERNAL=YES keyword on the TRCLEV= parameter of the BPE configuration parameter member (BPECFG=) of the IMS.PROCLIB data set or issue the UPDATE TRACETABLE command with the EXTERNAL(YES) parameter on it.

To see which trace tables have external tracing turned on, use the BPE DISPLAY TRACETABLE command.

If IMS encounters an I/O error while writing to one of the external trace data sets, IMS closes and deallocates the current data set and allocates and opens a new data set. If IMS cannot allocate or open a new data set, IMS disables BPE tracing for all components that use that GDG data set. Issue the BPE UPDATE TRACETABLE command to have IMS retry the allocation and open processing for the data set.

If the I/O capacity of the GDG data sets cannot support the volume of trace records being created, IMS skips writing trace records until the I/O system can catch up rather than waiting and potentially delaying other IMS work.

To stop BPE external tracing for a particular trace table type:

Procedure

  1. Issue the UPD TRTAB EXTERNAL(NO) command.
  2. Specify the table type on the NAME parameter.

To stop BPE external tracing for all tables issue UPD TRTAB NAME(*) EXTERNAL(NO). BPE closes and deallocates the last external trace data set when there are no more table types being externally traced.

Information about BPE commands is in IMS Version 15.2 Commands, Volume 3: IMS Component and z/OS® Commands.

Formatting and viewing BPE external trace data sets

To format and view BPE trace entries, use the Interactive Problem Control System (IPCS). For information on using IPCS to view BPE trace entries, see IMS Version 15.2 Diagnosis .