Question & Answer
Question
How do I use QMGTOOLS to send a Main Storage Dump (MSD) to IBM for analysis?
*Note: If you are looking for instructions on how to manually collect a Main Storage Dump (MSD), see the following document depending upon if your partition is HMC managed or not:
*Note: If you are looking for instructions on how to manually collect a Main Storage Dump (MSD), see the following document depending upon if your partition is HMC managed or not:
- Performing a Main Storage Dump (MSD) on an HMC Managed Server (HMC)
- How to Force a Main Storage Dump (MSD) on a Stand-Alone System When System is Hung
Answer
To install or update QMGTOOLS from IBM, follow this link for instructions: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/645929
- Run the QMGTOOLS/WRKMSD command to work with Main Storage Dumps.
- The top dump shown on the screen is the most recent dump copied to auxiliary storage.
- Use option 3 to copy the dump into an IFS file.
- If IBM Support has requested any macro data be collected from the dump, use option 7 as directed by IBM Support.
- After the dump and any macro data has been copied to the IFS, use option 9 to work with the IFS files for that dump.
- If the dump file is very large (e.g. > 200 GB), or if you know your network has limits set for file transfer size, use F6 to split the dump into smaller pieces for upload to IBM.
- Use option 1 to select all of the files that need to be uploaded to IBM, press enter.
- Specify the type of upload, IBM transfer credentials for the type of upload, and IBM Support case number, then press Enter to submit the uploads to batch. Note that the selected files are sent in the order they are displayed - smallest to largest. That helps IBM Support in two ways - 1) if any macro data was collected, those are much smaller than the dump file and will get uploaded first so analysis can begin as soon as possible, and 2) if the dump is split into smaller files for upload, the last file in the sequence will be the remainder (smaller than the rest of the split pieces) so it will be received first, so IBM knows how many more pieces to expect.
Related Information
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Modified date:
19 May 2026
UID
nas8N1022171