Enabling a client trace using the command line

You can trace the available backup-archive client by enabling client trace on the command line.

About this task

Complete the following steps to enable client tracing on the command line:

Procedure

  1. Determine the trace classes to enable.
  2. Choose which trace classes to enable by adding the following text to the dsm.opt client options file: traceflags <trace class name>
  3. Use a minus sign (-) in front of a trace class to turn off tracing for a trace class. Make sure that the trace classes that have tracing turned off are placed at the end of the trace class list. For example, if you want to collect a SERVICE trace without the SESSION or SESSVERB classes, then specify the following text:
    • Correct: traceflags service,-session,-sessverb
    • Incorrect: traceflags -session,-sessverb,service
    Attention: <trace class name> might be a comma-delimited list of trace classes. For example, this text can be entered as traceflags service,verbdetail
  4. Choose the location of the trace messages output by adding the following text to the client options file: tracefile <file name>.
    The tracefile name must be fully qualified, for example:
    • Windows operating systemstracefile c:\service\trace.out
    • AIX operating systemsLinux operating systemstracefile /home/spike/trace.out
    • Mac OS X operating systemstracefile trace.txt
  5. Set a maximum size for the trace file 1 - 4,294,967,295 MB by specifying the following variable in the client options file: tracemax <size in mb>

    If a maximum value is specified, the client starts writing information from the beginning of the trace file (that is, wrapping) when the trace reaches its maximum size. This information can be useful if you are trying to capture an event that happens at the end of a long-running process. For example, to specify a maximum trace file size of 10 MB: tracemax 10 After a tracefile reaches the limit that is specified with tracemax, "Continued at beginning of file" is written to the end of the trace file and tracing continues from the top of the file. The end of the tracefile is indicated with "END OF DATA." You can locate the end of the trace by searching for this string. If you specify a TRACEMAX size of 1001 or higher and TRACESEGSIZE is not specified, then the trace file is automatically split into multiple segments of 1000 MB per segment (see TRACESEGSIZE discussion).

    You can choose to allow the client split the trace into smaller segments (1 - 1,000 MB per segment) by specifying the following variable in the client options file: tracesegsize <trace segment size in MB>

    When trace is split into small segments, you to easily manage large amounts of trace data, avoiding the problems that are associated with compressing large files and eliminating the task of using a separate "file splitter" utility. For example, issue the following command to specify a trace segment size of 200 MB: tracesegize 200

    A trace file segment name is specified with the tracefile option, plus an extension that indicates the segment number. For example, if you specify tracefile tsmtrace.out, and tracesegsize 200, then the trace will be segmented into multiple separate files of no more than 200 MB each, with file names tsmtrace.out.1, tsmtrace.out.2, and so on. When you are specifying the segment size, do not use any comma separators:
    • Correct: tracemax 1000
    • Incorrect: tracemax 1,000
    If you use the TRACESEGSIZE option, the trace file segments are named by using the name that is specified in the option file with an extra extension using the segment number. For example, trace.out.1
  6. Perform the operation that exhibits the problem.

What to do next

Tracing might also be configured and started by starting the client from a command prompt and specifying the previously defined flags. For example:
dsmc -traceflags=service,verbdetail -tracefile=tsmtrace.out 
-tracemax=2500 -tracesegsize=200