Starting data collection

If the CICS® IA Collector is not already running in a specific region, you can start collecting dependency data, affinity data, or both on that region. Only one CICS® IA Collector can run on each CICS® region.

To start collecting data on a specified CICS® region, use one of the methods shown in Methods for starting data collection by the Collector. The Collector records transaction dependencies or affinities until you pause or stop data collection.

Table 1. Methods for starting data collection by the Collector
Where used Command or function key
CINT transaction Operations Menu, CIU100 Type 1 against a listed CICS® APPLID and press Enter, to start the Collector on the specified region. ❶
CINT transaction Operations Menu, CIU100 If more than one CICS® region is listed on the Operations Menu, you can type 1 against the first CICS® APPLID in the list (ALL) and press Enter to start the Collector on all the regions. ❷
3270 terminal CINT <start_options> ❸
Console F cicsjob, CINT <start_options> ❹
Application program EXEC CICS START TRANSID('CINT') FROM('<start_options>') ❺
Note:
  1. If you enter action code 1 against a CICS® region, you are asked to confirm that you want the Collector to start recording data.
  2. If you enter action code 1 against ALL, you are asked to confirm that you want the Collector to start recording data on all the regions.
  3. The start options are as follows:
    START
    Starts the Collector on the local CICS® region; that is, the region to which the 3270 terminal is connected. The type of data collected (interdependency or affinity) depends on what you have specified for the Data to Collect region-specific option on the Collector General Options screen, CIU260, shown in Collector General Options panel, CIU260.
    STARTALL
    Starts the Collectors on all the monitored CICS® regions. For each region, the type of data collected depends on what you have specified for the Data to Collect region-specific option on the Collector General Options screen, CIU260.
    STARTAFF
    Starts the collection of affinity data on the local CICS® region. This command overrides what you have specified for the Data to Collect region-specific option. In other words, even if you have specified the type of Data to Collect as interdependency, the CINT STARTAFF command causes affinity, not interdependency, data to be collected.
    STARTALLAFF
    Starts the collection of affinity data on all the monitored CICS® regions. This command overrides what you have specified, for each region, on the Data to Collect region-specific option. In other words, even if, for some regions, you have specified the type of Data to Collect as interdependency, the CINT STARTALLAFF command causes affinity data to be collected on all the regions.
    STARTINT
    Starts the collection of interdependency data on the local CICS® region. This command overrides what you have specified for the Data to Collect region-specific option. In other words, even if you have specified the type of Data to Collect as affinity, the CINT STARTINT command causes interdependency, not affinity, data to be collected.
    STARTALLINT
    Starts the collection of interdependency data on all the monitored CICS® regions. This command overrides what you have specified, for each region, on the Data to Collect region-specific option. In other words, even if, for some regions, you have specified the type of Data to Collect as affinity, the CINT STARTALLINT command causes interdependency data to be collected on all the regions.
    STARTBOTH
    Starts the collection of both affinity data and interdependency data on the local CICS® region. This command overrides what you have specified for the Data to Collect region-specific option. In other words, even if you have specified the type of Data to Collect as affinity, the CINT STARTBOTH command causes both affinity data and interdependency data to be collected.
    STARTALLBOTH
    Starts the collection of both affinity data and interdependency data on all the monitored CICS® regions. This command overrides what you have specified for the Data to Collect option in each region. In other words, even if you have specified, for each region, the type of Data to Collect as affinity, the CINT STARTALLBOTH command causes both affinity data and interdependency data to be collected for all the regions.
  4. cicsjob is the name of your CICS® startup job. The <start_options> are described in note❸.
  5. This command, issued from a program initiated during the third stage of CICS® initialization (that is, a program specified in the second part of the PLTPI list for the CICS® region), starts the Collector during CICS® initialization.The <start_options> are described in note❸. A PLTPI program to start the Collector, CIUSTART, is supplied with CICS® IA. For more information, see Starting and stopping CICS® IA from the PLT.
On each region, the data that is collected depends on the following options:
  1. The start option (such as START, STARTAFF, STARTINT, or STARTALLAFF) that you specify, as listed earlier.
    Note:
    If you have set up a timer to control the dates and times at which the Collector runs on the specified region, and it is scheduled not to be running when the command is issued, starting the Collector by any of the methods in Table 1 puts the Collector in a PAUSED state. For details of how to set up a timer, see Specifying region-specific options: timers.
  2. The region-specific options that you specify. For example, if you are collecting dependency data, data is collected only for the (CICS® and non-CICS) API commands that you choose to be monitored (by specifying Y for the command type on the CICS® Resources Options screen, CIU240, and the Db2/MQ/IMS/CPSM Resource Options screen, CIU250. See Collector CICS(r)® Resources Options panel, CIU240 and Collector Db2/MQ/IMS/CPSM Resource Options panel, CIU250).

    Similarly, if you are collecting affinity data, data is collected only for the CICS® API commands that you choose to be monitored (by specifying Y for the command type on the CICS® Affinities Options screen, CIU270. See Collector Affinities Options panel, CIU270).

    In addition, data collection is filtered by the region-specific options that you set on the General Options screen, CIU260. See Transid prefix, Program exclude list, Transaction exclude list, Command exclude list, and Resource compression list in Specifying region-specific options: General.

    For a complete list of the program commands that are not monitored, see What the Collector does not monitor.

Each time the Collector is started, a new data space is created. You specify its size on the Collector General Options panel, CIU260. You can also specify that data from the VSAM dependency or affinity files (for example, from previous CICS® IA runs) is to be loaded into the data space when it is created. For more information, see Specifying region-specific options: Region configuration.

Note:
If there are a large number of data records to be loaded into the data space when it is created (for example, from previous CICS® IA runs), the Operations Menu screen might be frozen for a noticeable time until those records are loaded.