Tracing additional IBM MQ Java components

For Java components of IBM MQ , for example the IBM MQ Explorer and the Java implementation of IBM MQ Transport for SOAP, diagnostic information is output using the standard IBM MQ diagnostic facilities or by Java diagnostic classes.

Diagnostic information in this context consists of trace, first-failure data capture (FFDC) and error messages.

We can choose to have this information produced using IBM MQ facilities or the facilities of IBM MQ classes for Java or IBM MQ classes for JMS, as appropriate. Generally use the IBM MQ diagnostic facilities if they are available on the local system.

You might want to use the Java diagnostics in the following circumstances:

• On a system on which queue managers are available, if the queue manager is managed separately from the software you are running.
• To reduce performance effect of IBM MQ trace.

To request and configure diagnostic output, two system properties are used when starting an IBM MQ Java process:

• System property com.ibm.mq.commonservices specifies a standard Java property file, which contains a number of lines which are used to configure the diagnostic outputs. Each line of code in the file is free-format, and is terminated by a new line character.
• System property com.ibm.mq.commonservices.diagid associates trace and FFDC files with the process which created them.

For information about using the com.ibm.mq.commonservices properties file to configure diagnostics information, see Use com.ibm.mq.commonservices.

For instructions on locating trace information and FFDC files, see Java trace and FFDC files.