Starting an external trace for IMS Connect

You can start an external trace of IMS Connect by modifying the IMS Connect startup procedure or by issuing the BPE UPDATE TRACETABLE command.

Before you can start a BPE external trace for IMS Connect, you must first define a generation data group (GDG) base and code an EXTTRACE statement for IMS Connect in the BPECFGxx member of the IMS.PROCLIB data set.

Start the IMS Connect Recorder Trace by using one of the following methods.

Include BPECFG=BPECFGxx in the IMS Connect startup procedure, where BPECFGxx is the BPE PROCLIB member that contains the EXTTRACE statement for IMS Connect, and restart IMS Connect.
The BPE external trace starts when IMS Connect is started and BPE issues the following message:
```
   BPE0046I EXTERNAL TRACE DATA SET             
   IMSTESTL.RCTR.GDG01.G0001V00 OPENED ON VOL=000000 
```
While IMS Connect is running, issue the BPE command UPDATE TRACETABLE. For example:
F HWS1,UPDATE TRACETABLE NAME(RCTR) OWNER(HWS) LEVEL(MEDIUM) EXTERNAL(YES).

When the command completes successfully, the following messages are issued:
```
BPE0032I UPDATE TRACETABLE COMMAND COMPLETED   
BPE0046I EXTERNAL TRACE DATA SET               
IMSTESTL.RCTR.GDG01.G0003V00 OPENED ON VOL=000000                
```
Note: If EXTERNAL(NO) is specified on either the UPDATE TRACETABLE command or in the TRCLEV parameter in the BPECFGxx PROCLIB member, IMS Connect writes the Recorder Trace data to the in-core trace tables. IMS Connect writes to the in-core trace tables by default.

Recommendation: Use the BPE Trace facility. If the BPE Trace facility is in use, setting the trace level to HIGH captures records when messages are passed to and from TCP/IP clients and OTMA in addition to the normal trace records. If the HWSRCDR trace data set is used, these additional trace records are not captured.