V5R1 STRTRC problems

[Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

Just ran into this. In V5R1, TRCJOB is being supplanted by STRTRC. The
latter is really a PEX trace,a dn the results are massaged to look like the
old TRCJOB output. And TRCJOB is "no longer being enhanced".

There are some problems, one of which may be a general PEX problem.

1. If you have 2 STRTRC sessions going and end them at the same time, and
the PEX files do not exist, one of them will fail with a CPF2130, Object
already exists message, that comes from using CRTDUPOBJ (or equivalent). I
reported this, and got this response:

>  can reproduce it here. I will check with MikeD to confirm, but
>it is basically a design restriction of PEX.  You can do two jobs
>together, but not if the PEX database does not exist.   If each ENDTRC
>starts at the same time, they will both see that the PEX database does
>not exist and they will both try to create it.  The first PEX session
>will create the file, and the next PEX session will also try to create
>it and then get the error.  Circumvention #1 - Make sure the PEX files
>already exist before running two ENDTRC jobs at the same time.
>Circumvention #2 - have each ENDTRC save its data to a different
>library.

I think this is silly. All of us know how to MONMSG (or equivalent) when
doing CRTDUPOBJ.

If someone says that you can only have 1 PEX session at a time (as the
Redbook says) on the system, I know this is not true. And TRCJOB never had
that kind of restriction. Maybe one per job, but that was the case with
TRCJOB--no loss.

2. TRCJOB (and STRJOBTRC if you have Perf Tools) were connected to
STRSRVJOB. I.e., if you had run STRSRVJOB and then TRCJOB, it collected
data over the serviced job, not your own, as is the case if you are not
servicing another job.

STRTRC does not do this. So we have lost what could be an important bit of
functionality, IMO.

Vern Hamberg

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