Collecting a Managed File Transfer agent trace from startup

Where it is possible for you to stop an agent for a short period of time, we should collect Managed File Transfer agent trace from startup.


Before starting

Set various properties in the agent.properties file for the agent that needs to be traced.


To collect a trace from startup, complete the following steps.


Procedure

  1. Locate the agent.properties file for the agent that needs to be traced. The agent.properties file can be found in the MQ_DATA_PATH/mqft/config/coordination_qmgr_name/agents/agent_name directory.
  2. Edit the files and add entries for the following properties:

    • trace=trace specification

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

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

    For example, to collect 1GB of wrapping trace using the trace specification com.ibm.wmqfte=all, add the following lines to the agent.properties file:

    trace=com.ibm.wmqfte=all
    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.

  3. Stop the agent that needs to be traced, using the fteStopAgent command.
  4. Start the agent, by running the fteStartAgent command.
  5. Reproduce the issue.
  6. Stop the agent.
  7. Edit the agent.properties file for the agent, and remove the entries for the trace, traceFiles, and traceSize properties that you added in step 2. This ensures that trace is not enabled the next time you restart the agent.


Results

The resultant trace files are written to the MQ_DATA_PATH/mqft/logs/coordination_qmgr_name/agents/agent_name/logs/trace%PID% directory, where %PID% is the process identifier for the agent. Parent topic: Tracing Managed File Transfer agents on Multiplatforms