Building keywords for wait/loop problems

Use this topic to develop the WAIT or LOOP keyword in your keyword string. These conditions are symptoms of a wait or loop:

Suspended activity while waiting for some condition to be satisfied
Endless instruction loop
Repeating messages
Repeating sequence of panels
No system response
System abends

In DFSMSrmm, no program response indicates a wait condition. For example, a DFSMSrmm ISPF dialog panel might remain on the screen indefinitely after you have requested processing.

Recommendations: If you think that DFSMSrmm is not responding because it is processing a large amount of data, check these conditions:

Ensure the MAXHOLD value has been correctly entered. You use the MAXHOLD value to specify the number of records the subsystem scans while holding a reserve on the DFSMSrmm control data set. If you use a large MAXHOLD number, the subsystem could hold a reserve of the control data set for a long time which impacts performance.
Limit the number of list entries when you request a search by making your selection criteria more specific.

You can view the ISPF log to check for symptoms of a module loop if you are in the DFSMSrmm ISPF dialog. In your DFSMSrmm ISPF dialog user profile, specify that you want the DFSMSrmm ISPF dialog to record inter-module trace data.

This topic explains how to gather the information you need to add to your keyword string:

For DFSMSrmm ISPF dialog:
- WAIT/LOOP (required)
For the rest of the DFSMSrmm components:
- WAIT/LOOP (required)
- MODULE (optional)
- OFFSET (optional)

If you have obtained a dump, you can locate this information:

Find the program status word (PSW) in the dump as shown in Figure 1 .

Figure 1. Finding the PSW in the SYSUDUMP

JOB S1REP001         STEP AUDREPT         TIME 123515   DATE 93281    ID = 000    CPUID = FF0158243090   PAGE 00000001
COMPLETION CODE      SYSTEM = 0C4      REASON CODE = 00000010

  PSW AT ENTRY TO ABEND   078D2000  000085C4  ILC  04  INTC  0010

Check whether the WAIT state bit (bit 14) of the PSW is on or off. In Figure 2, the WAIT state bit is off.

Figure 2. Identifying a wait state

  PSW AT ENTRY TO ABEND   078D2000  000085C4
                             _
  Bits                  12 13 14 15
                         1  1  0  1

Determine which keyword you should use, LOOP or WAIT. If the WAIT state bit is off, use the keyword LOOP.
Keyword string so far: 5650DF186 R210 LOOP

If you have identified the failure as a wait condition, use WAIT as your type-of-failure keyword:

Keyword string so far: 5650DF186 R210 WAIT
Go to Building modifier keyword strings to build the next keyword in the string if the wait or loop occurred in the DFSMSrmm ISPF dialog.
Go to Building keywords for module-related errors for information on adding the module and offset keywords to your string.