Providing symptom information through the SDUMPX macro

The SYMREC parameter on the SDUMPX macro allows programs running in a non-recovery environment, where there is no SDWA, to request an SVC dump and dump suppression services similar to those that are available in a recovery environment, where an SDWA is present. When an SDWA exists and a symptom record is passed to the system on the SYMREC parameter, DAE uses the primary symptom string in the symptom record. DAE suppresses the SVC dump if the primary symptom string in the symptom record matches previously known symptoms.

DAE copies the primary and secondary symptom strings from the symptom record into the dump header. If the symptom record is written to the logrec data set, the symptom string in the dump header is consistent with the record in the logrec data set. The system does not include the symptom record in the dump, but you can include the symptom record in the dump by using the SUMLIST keyword on the SDUMPX macro.

Consider the following points when using the SYMREC parameter of the SDUMPX macro to specify a symptom record:

The caller must build the symptom record using the SYMRBLD macro, or the ADSR mapping macro, and fill in at least the ‘SR’ identifier and the primary symptom string, which should uniquely identify the error.
If the symptom record identifier is not ‘SR’ or if the symptoms are not addressable, the system issues an abend with a completion code of X'233', then returns to the caller with a return code of 8.

See z/OS MVS Programming: Assembler Services Guide for instructions and programming notes for using the SYMRBLD macro or the ADSR mapping macro.
DAE uses only the first 150 bytes of the primary symptom string in the symptom record. If it must truncate a primary symptom string, DAE truncates at the end of the last complete symptom within the first 150 bytes of the symptom string.
During its match processing, DAE performs a byte-by-byte comparison of symptom strings. Thus, be sure that the symptom strings you generate are consistent in the order of symptoms and the number of blank characters between symptoms.
If the SYMREC parameter is used in a recovery environment where an SDWA exists, DAE uses the symptoms found in the symptom record rather than in the SDWA.