Tracing WebSphere MQ for Windows

You enable or modify tracing using the strmqtrc control command, described in strmqtrc (Start trace). To stop tracing, you use the endmqtrc control command, described in endmqtrc (end trace).

In WebSphere MQ for Windows systems, you can also start and stop tracing using the WebSphere MQ Explorer, as follows:

  1. Start the WebSphere MQ Explorer from the Start menu.
  2. In the Navigator View, right-click the WebSphere MQ tree node, and select Trace.... The Trace Dialog is displayed.
  3. Click Start or Stop as appropriate.

Selective component tracing on WebSphere MQ for Windows

Use the -t and -x options to control the amount of trace detail to record. By default, all trace points are enabled. The -x option enables you to specify the points that you do not want to trace. So if, for example, you want to trace only data flowing over communications networks, use:

strmqtrc -x all -t comms 

For a full description of the trace command, see strmqtrc (Start trace).

Trace files

During the installation process, you can choose the drive on which trace files are to be located. The trace files are always placed in the directory\<mqmwork>\trace, where <mqmwork> is the directory selected when WebSphere MQ was installed to hold WebSphere MQ data files.

Trace files are named AMQppppp.qq.TRC, where:

ppppp Is the process identifier (PID) of the process producing the trace.
qq Starts at 0. If the full filename already exists, this value is incremented by one until a unique trace filename is found. A trace filename can already exist if a process is reused.
Notes:
  1. The process identifier can contain fewer, or more, digits than shown in the example.
  2. There is one trace file for each process running as part of the entity being traced.

An example of WebSphere MQ for Windows trace data

Figure 24 shows an extract from a WebSphere MQ for Windows trace:

Figure 24. Sample WebSphere MQ for Windows trace
Process : C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere MQ\bin\amqxssvn.exe
Version : 6.0.0.0    Level : p000-L050202
Date : 02/07/05  Time : 15:13:09

Counter  TimeStamp          PID.TID   Data
============================================================

00000D12 15:13:09.961154  10064.1      !! - Thread stack
00000D13 15:13:09.961173  10064.1      !! - -> InitProcessInitialisation
00000D14 15:13:09.961206  10064.1     --{  InitProcessInitialisation
00000D15 15:13:09.961899  10064.1     ---{  xcsReleaseThreadMutexSem
00000D16 15:13:09.961927  10064.1     ---}  xcsReleaseThreadMutexSem (rc=OK)
00000D17 15:13:09.961942  10064.1     ---{  xcsGetEnvironmentInteger
00000D18 15:13:09.962017  10064.1     ----{  xcsGetEnvironmentString
00000D19 15:13:09.962045  10064.1     xcsGetEnvironmentString[AMQ_AFFINITY_MASK]#
                                            = NULL
00000D1A 15:13:09.962051  10064.1     ----}! xcsGetEnvironmentString 
                                            (rc=xecE_E_ENV_VAR_NOT_FOUND)
00000D1B 15:13:09.962083  10064.1     ---}! xcsGetEnvironmentInteger
                                            (rc=xecE_E_ENV_VAR_NOT_FOUND)
00000D1C 15:13:09.962092  10064.1     --}  InitProcessInitialisation (rc=OK)
00000D1D 15:13:09.962097  10064.1     --{  xcsCreateThreadMutexSem
00000D1E 15:13:09.962106  10064.1     ---{  xcsCloseHandle
00000D1F 15:13:09.962113  10064.1      Handle (0x48), Handle Type (9)
00000D20 15:13:09.962121  10064.1      OK
00000D21 15:13:09.962125  10064.1     ---}! xcsCloseHandle (rc=Unknown(1))
00000D22 15:13:09.963830  10064.1     --}  xcsCreateThreadMutexSem (rc=OK)
00000D23 15:13:09.963908  10064.1     --{  xcsProgramInit
00000D24 15:13:09.963914  10064.1     ---{  xcsProgramInit
00000D25 15:13:09.964557  10064.1      Adjusted Privilege NewPrivileges.Attribute
                                            = 2 OldPrivileges.Attribute = 1245120