CICS PA also issues a message indicating that a STAE exit was invoked.
User abends issued by the STAE exit processing frequently mask the real problem. When CICS PA encounters an error condition, such as a protection exception, it tries to recover and produce as many reports as possible, without reading any more data. It then abnormally terminates with one of these user abends.
Logic errors are generally easier to diagnose if processing stops immediately. When a STAE exit runs, memory and register values change, making the cause of the abend harder to identify. If you need a dump for analysis by IBM® support, be sure to specify PARM=NOSTAE on the EXEC statement of your JCL.
If you specify NOSTAE and still get user abends, check the error messages. Some severe CICS PA messages cause user abends 1000, 1001, or 1002 after they are issued. NOSTAE does not affect these user abends. If you need to call IBM support, make sure you know which message causes you to stop processing.