Configure CICS and IMS monitoring

Define additional monitoring settings for CICS and IMS transactions. In the Dynatrace menu, go to Settings > Mainframe to find the following menu options:

Transaction monitoring
Transaction start filters
IBM MQ filters

Transaction monitoring

Define additional monitoring settings for CICS and IMS transactions.

Parameter Description

Monitor all incoming web requests

Parameter	Description
Monitor all incoming web requests	Dynatrace automatically traces incoming web requests when they are called by monitored services. Enable this setting to trace all incoming web requests regardless of whether they are called from monitored or unmonitored services. We recommend enabling it only over a short period of time.
Group CICS regions that belong to the same CICSPlex	Enable this setting to group CICS Regions belonging to the same CICSPlex into a single process group. If disabled, a process group is created for every CICS region. This option is enabled by default.
PurePath® distributed trace node limit	The maximum number of nodes in the distributed trace, which will be captured for a single CICS or IMS program call. We recommend the limit of 500, which is the default. Increasing the default limit might cause more overhead to process the additional data. The value of `0` means unlimited number of nodes.

Dynatrace automatically traces incoming web requests when they are called by monitored services. Enable this setting to trace all incoming web requests regardless of whether they are called from monitored or unmonitored services.

We recommend enabling it only over a short period of time.

Group CICS regions that belong to the same CICSPlex

Enable this setting to group CICS Regions belonging to the same CICSPlex into a single process group. If disabled, a process group is created for every CICS region.

This option is enabled by default.

PurePath® distributed trace node limit

The maximum number of nodes in the distributed trace, which will be captured for a single CICS or IMS program call. We recommend the limit of 500, which is the default. Increasing the default limit might cause more overhead to process the additional data.

The value of 0 means unlimited number of nodes.

Transaction start filters

Dynatrace traces CICS and IMS transactions when they are called by monitored services. Dynatrace also traces transactions where they are started through a supported protocol by CICS Transaction Gateway, z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition, or IBM MQ (unless they are limited by the IBM MQ filters).

Transactions that start on the mainframe or on a terminal (for example, IBM 3270 green screen terminal), or are called by unmonitored services, need to be explicitly listed in order to be traced.

OneAgent 1.235+ CICS terminal transaction start filter

To trace CICS transactions that start on a terminal (for example, IBM 3270 green screen terminal), add their transaction IDs to the CICS terminal transaction start filter. You can use the asterisk (*) wildcard. For example, use TN* to trace all transaction IDs that start with TN, or use * to trace all transactions starting on a terminal.

Note

Activate the required z/OS CICS terminal transaction sensor OneAgent feature. In the Dynatrace menu, go to Settings > Server-side service monitoring > Deep monitoring and expand the New OneAgent features section.

CICS transaction start filter

To trace CICS transactions that start on the mainframe or are called by unmonitored services, add their transaction IDs to the CICS transaction start filter. You can use the asterisk (*) wildcard. For example, use TN* to trace all transaction IDs that start with TN.

This sensor ignores transactions that are captured by another sensor at the start of the transaction (CICS Transaction Gateway and z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition, as well as transaction start and DPL requests from other CICS transactions). It interferes with transactions that are recognized later in the chain, so if a listed transaction is called through IBM MQ, SOAP, HTTP, or the CICS/IMS SDK, a new trace will start for this transaction and it will not be linked to the previous trace.

If you have any transaction IDs listed here that belong to a terminal (for example, IBM 3270 green screen terminal), we recommend that you move them to the CICS terminal transaction start filter list.

IMS transaction start filter

To trace IMS transactions that start on the mainframe or on a terminal (for example, IBM 3270 green screen terminal), or are called by unmonitored services, add their transaction IDs to the IMS transaction start filter. You can use the asterisk (*) wildcard. For example, use TN* to trace all transaction IDs that start with TN.

IBM MQ filters

Dynatrace traces CICS and IMS transactions that originate from IBM MQ queues. To limit tracing to certain queues, specify their names in the include lists. To exclude queues from tracing, specify their names in the exclude lists. For IMS, these lists apply to message processing regions.

Parameter	Description
CICS: Included MQ queues	A list of MQ queue names associated with CICS that can start a trace.
CICS: Excluded MQ queues	A list of MQ queue names associated with CICS that should not start a trace.
IMS: Included MQ queues	A list of MQ queue names associated with IMS message process region that can start a trace.
IMS: Excluded MQ queues	A list of MQ queue names associated with IMS message process region that should not start a trace.
IMS bridge: Included transaction IDs	To only trace specific transactions submitted via the IMS bridge, specify their transaction IDs in the include list.
IMS bridge: Excluded transaction IDs	To exclude specific transactions submitted via the IMS bridge from tracing, specify their transaction IDs in the exclude list.