Monitoring Restrictions › Program Control Restrictions

Program Control Restrictions

For CA InterTest for CICS to be able to monitor a program, it must receive control from the CICS EXECUTE INTERFACE PROGRAM (DFHEIP). During startup CA InterTest for CICS enables the global user exit points XPCFTCH and XPCABND provided by IBM. These points allow a program to assume control of another program during an EXEC CICS LINK, an EXEC CICS XCTL, or abend processing. To verify the status of these exits, use the IGLU transaction.

If a program is eligible for monitoring by CA InterTest for CICS, monitoring can begin only if one of the following conditions is satisfied:

• The program to be monitored is the first program to participate in a transaction. In other words, the program was named in the CICS Transaction Resource definition.
• The program to be monitored received control from another program through an EXEC CICS LINK or EXEC CICS XCTL.
• The program to be monitored received control from another program through a direct branch instruction. In addition, the program that passed control must be monitored by CA InterTest for CICS, and must have the online FOL=option active. For more information, see the chapter "CNTL Commands and Menus."
• The program to be monitored received control from another COBOL program using a dynamic call.
• The program to be monitored received control as the abend exit routine. In other words, the program (or part of it), was named in an EXEC CICS HANDLE ABEND command, executed prior to the abend.

If a non-monitored program passes control to another program directly through a branch instruction rather than an EXEC CICS LINK or EXEC CICS XCTL command, monitoring is not set in motion. This is true even though the program that is receiving control is declared in the CA InterTest for CICS monitoring table. In order to cause monitoring to start in this situation, segmented monitoring may be used or the program issuing the direct branch must be monitored with the FOL=option declared. For more information, see the FOL= keyword of the IN25OPTS macro.

Execution Restrictions

As CA InterTest for CICS executes the instructions of the monitored program, it must be able to recognize the following requests:

• Any CICS service requests. This is to prevent CA InterTest for CICS from monitoring the CICS software.
• Any other means the monitored program could use to pass control to other parts of the application.

CA InterTest for CICS recognizes CICS service requests if the commands are coded into the monitored program. However, it might not recognize calls to the system if the statements that prepare the service request are coded and arranged differently than as generated by the CICS command translator.

Special Circumstances

You should be aware of the following special circumstances:

• CA InterTest for CICS will not monitor a program whose name begins with the characters DFH or IN25 unless that program is specifically declared for monitoring by its program name. Such a program cannot be monitored by declaring a transaction or terminal for monitoring, or even by declaring the entire application system: CA InterTest for CICS automatically assumes this program belongs to the CICS system software.
• You must prevent CA InterTest for CICS from monitoring certain programs that run under CICS, such as TRUE's, GLUE's, and any user replaceable system components (such as DFHPEP). Use the CNTL=EXCL command to exempt these programs from monitoring. You can identify the program, transactions, and terminals to be exempted by giving their full identifications or by using generic identifications. However, it is best to follow the procedure CA recommends and always explicitly declare programs for monitoring by using a CNTL=ON, PROG=... command or by specifying specific programs in the menu system.
• CA InterTest for CICS suppresses breakpoints between an EXEC CICS POST and EXEC CICS WAIT EVENT, WAIT EXTERNAL, WAIT CONVID, or WAITCICS. When the EXEC CICS WAIT is encountered, breakpoint processing resumes. Starting the CA InterTest for CICS internal VTAT transaction, when a breakpoint is encountered, would freemain the ECB set by the EXEC CICS POST causing the EXEC CICS WAIT to hang waiting on the ECB. Therefore, CA InterTest for CICS suppresses any type of breakpoint set between the POST and WAIT allowing the application program to continue normally.