14.3 Tracing Abend Sources

Server abends (abnormal end of a piece of server code) are indicated on the Health Monitor page by a suspect or bad status for the Abended Thread Count indicator.

To trace sources of server abends:

  1. Under the Diagnose Server heading, click the Profile/Debug link.

    This displays the Profiling and Debug Information page, which shows information about active and suspended threads, their states, the owning NLM program, and execution times.

  2. On the Profiling and Debug Information page, check to see which thread or program has a Suspended by Abend Recovery state and click the thread name link for that thread.

    This displays the Thread Information page.

  3. On the Thread Information page, view the Suspend Description field.

    This information should tell you what the thread experienced and when. You will also be able to see a listing of Registers, Code Executed, and Stack information that the server was executing at the time the thread suspended.

    If the thread was suspended by the Abend Recovery process, the state of the thread at the time of the abend is displayed, along with the reason for the abend and the code that was being executed at the time.

  4. Click the Stack Address value link and perform some basic stack tracing (if you are familiar with interpreting assembly code).

    You can use this information to look at the NLM information that is associated with the thread that had the problem. This can help you determine whether the NLM itself is having a problem or whether it is having a problem only when certain other NLM programs are running.

  5. If possible, unload the NLM to see if the problem disappears.