Uninterrupted CICS Debugging with CA InterTest and CA SYSVIEW
Was your CA InterTest for CICS debugging session cancelled just a moment before you could crack the problem? Is it the threshold rules? Do you have to request your SYSPROG to amend threshold rules often? Yes! If you use CA SYSVIEW Performance Management, there may be an easy fix!.
In general, a CICS transaction may reach its threshold goals when an application debugger is active during an ongoing execution of a transaction in a tightly monitored or production environment. This forces CA SYSVIEW to act upon the transaction as per the threshold rule. This rule might lead to cancellation of the transaction.
You will no longer encounter such problem with an application debugger — CA InterTest for CICS, as it enables CA SYSVIEW to detect the application debug activity in an executing CICS Transaction, which allows CA SYSVIEW to bypass the threshold rules.
Looking into CA SYSVIEW active transactions, you can see which transactions are behaving outside of threshold norms due to it being monitored by a debugger. CTASKS — CICS Active Tasks on the CA SYSVIEW shows the current active transactions of the CICS region. The column “Debug=DEBUG” indicates the presence of an application debugger.
How to Access CTASKS
CA SYSVIEW CTASKS can be accessed via CA SYSVIEW Plug-in for Zowe CLI (or) CA SYSVIEW ISPF screens.
ZOWE CLI
zowe sysview display “ACTIVITY;ASID CICSJOB1;CTASKS;”
CA SYSVIEW ISPF Screens
Set your CICS job to the current ASID and enter CTASKS command, you will see like below.
Transaction history also highlights the debugger activity by including a message “Application debugging was active for transaction”.
Benefits of CA InterTest for CICS — CA SYSVIEW integration
This integration offers many benefits, the most significant are:
- CA SYSVIEW dynamic thresholding option Threshold-Task-Dynamic-AppDebug(=YES) allows additional checking for the presence of an Application Debugger and bypasses the cancellation of a transaction (that had to be cancelled because of threshold rules triggered).
- This option enables CA InterTest for CICS, when run in production environments to be honored by the existing threshold rules. Now, the Sysprog does not have to change the threshold rules each time a debugger is active in a tightly monitored CICS region.
CA SYSVIEW Configuration
A CICS region job can be configured for CA SYSVIEW with the following steps.
CSD
Define and install CA SYSVIEW CSDs — HLQ..CNM4BSAM(CICSCSD). Add CA SYSVIEW group SYSVLIST to the GRPLIST in your CICS startup JCL or INSTALL the CA SYSVIEW group after the region is started.
Loadlib
Add the CA SYSVIEW load library to the STEPLIB and DFHRPL DDs in your CICS startup JCL.
Required DDs
Add the following CA SYSVIEW DDs to the CICS startup JCL
//XPFCPARM DD DISP=SHR,DSN=sysview.CNM4BPRM
//XPFCDUMP DD SYSOUT=*
//XPFCLOG DD SYSOUT=*
//XPFCALOG DD SYSOUT=*
//AWSINI DD SYSOUT=*
//CEEDUMP DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSOUT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSTERM DD SYSOUT=*
Start CA SYSVIEW
Run the transaction GSVS on CICS terminal to start CA SYSVIEW prior to the CA InterTest for CICS Debug session.
Now when CA InterTest for CICS is monitoring a CICS transaction in a tightly monitored environment, the mystery of transaction threshold failure is solved. This capability is supported in:
- CA InterTest for CICS-V11
- CA SYSVIEW -V16
