Collecting an agent trace dynamically using USS

The fteSetAgentTraceLevel command allows trace to be collected from a running agent. This can be very useful if IBM® Support need to see a trace from an agent that cannot be stopped.

About this task

To collect a trace from a Managed File Transfer for z/OS® agent using the fteSetAgentTraceLevel command, complete the following steps.

Procedure

1. Turn on trace for the agent by running the following command:

   fteSetAgentTraceLevel -traceAgent classes=level agent_name 

   The -traceAgent parameter determines the internal classes and packages that are to be traced. Unless otherwise specified by your IBM Support representative, set this property to the value com.ibm.wmqfte=all.

2. Reproduce the issue.
3. Turn trace off, using the command:

   fteSetAgentTraceLevel -traceAgent =off agent_name

4. If an agent is busy, then it is possible that the trace files will wrap quickly and overwrite the information needed to investigate the issue. In this situation there are two options:
   1. The first option is to:
      1. Schedule some time to stop the agent.
      2. Locate the agent.properties file for the agent that needs to be traced. The agent.properties file can be found in the BFG_DATA/mqft/config/coordination_qmgr_name/agents/agent_name directory.
      3. Edit the files and add entries for the following properties:
         • traceFiles=number of trace files to use
         • traceSize=size of each trace file, in MB

           The traceFiles and traceSize properties are used to control the amount of trace data that is collected.

           The default value of the traceFiles property is 5, and the traceSize property has the default value of 20MB. This means that if you turn on trace dynamically, and we have not set the properties, the agent writes trace information to 5 wrapping trace files, each with a maximum size of 20MB.

           You should set these properties to large values, to collect as much trace data as possible.

           For example, to collect 1GB of wrapping trace, add the following lines to the agent.properties file:

           traceFiles=5
           traceSize=200
           

           This results in the agent writing trace data to a maximum of 5 files, where each file has a size of 200MB.

           For more information on these agent properties, see The MFT agent.properties file.

      4. Stop the agent, using the fteStopAgent command.
      5. Start the agent, by running the fteStartAgent command.
      6. Run the command:

         fteSetAgentTraceLevel -traceAgent trace_specification agent_name

         to enable trace for the agent.
      7. Reproduce the issue.
      8. Turn trace off on the agent by running the command:

         fteSetAgentTraceLevel -traceAgent =off agent_name

   2. The second option is to contact your IBM Support representative, if it is not possible to stop the agent for a short period of time. We can then discuss alternative trace specifications to use, in order to reduce the amount of trace data that is being generated.

Results