Using the WebSphere MQ trace for administration

Although we need to use specific traces on occasion, using the trace facility has a negative impact on the performance of your systems.

Consider what destination you want your trace information sent to. Using the internal trace table saves I/O, but it is not large enough for traces that produce a lot of data.

The statistics trace gathers information at intervals. The intervals are controlled by the STATIME parameter of the CSQ6SYSP macro, described in the WebSphere MQ for z/OS System Setup Guide. An accounting trace record is produced when the task or channel ends. This could be after many days.

We can limit traces by class, resource manager identifier (RMID), and instrumentation facility identifier (IFCID) to reduce the volume of data collected. See the WebSphere MQ Script (MQSC) Command Reference manual for more information.