Collecting IMS diagnostic information

Before you report a problem to IBM® Software Support, collect information to help document the problem at your installation. Having this information available when you call IBM can save you time because you might not need to create the problem again.

As a result of its complexity, IMS can experience problems that must be diagnosed and corrected. Examples of problems that you might encounter while running IMS include an abnormal end (known as an abend) occurs in processing, a job hangs in the system and does not process, a process repetitively loops through a series of instructions, or processing slows down.

For these types of problems, IMS displays symptoms that can help you with your diagnosis, but, in order to obtain that information, you need to gather all of the correct data to diagnose a problem.

To collect data about a system problem:

1. Collect the symptom data and determine what type of problem it is.
2. Use the procedures recommended to diagnose the problem to determine whether the problem is an IMS problem or a user problem.
3. If the problem is an IMS or system problem, build a search argument from the data that you collect as a result of following the procedure for that problem. For example, the data you gather from a control region wait can be helpful in building a search argument to search the symptom database with.
4. Search the symptom database. You might need to refine your search with more data from the problem.
5. If you cannot find a known problem with the same symptoms, report the problem to IBM Software Support.