How recorded activity information is acquired

Activity information can be recorded in two ways, see How activity information is recorded. Depending on how activity information has been recorded, the method of acquiring the activity information once the trace-route message has reached its intended destination, or has been discarded, varies as follows:

Accumulating activity information

Once the trace-route message has reached its intended destination, or is discarded, the activity information needs to be acquired. This can be done using the following methods:

Retrieving the trace-route message

The Deliver parameter, in the TraceRoute PCF group, controls whether a trace-route message is placed on the target queue on arrival, or whether it is discarded, see Deliver. If the trace-route message is delivered to the target queue, then the trace-route message can be retrieved from this queue. Once retrieved, the WebSphere MQ display route application can be used to display the activity information, see WebSphere MQ display route application.

To request activity information be accumulated in the message data of a trace-route message, set the Accumulate parameter in the TraceRoute PCF group to

MQROUTE_ACCUMULATE_IN_MSG.

Using a trace-route reply message

Once a trace-route message reaches its intended destination, or the trace-route message cannot be routed any further in a queue manager network, a trace-route reply message can be generated. A trace-route reply message contains a duplicate of all the activity information from the trace-route message, and is either delivered to a specified reply-to queue, or the system queue SYSTEM.ADMIN.TRACE.ROUTE.QUEUE. The WebSphere MQ display route application can be used to display the activity information, see WebSphere MQ display route application.

To request a trace-route reply message, set the Accumulate parameter in the TraceRoute PCF group to

MQROUTE_ACCUMULATE_AND_REPLY.

Using activity reports

If activity reports are generated for a trace-route message, the activity reports must be initially located so that the activity information can be acquired. Once located, the activity reports must be ordered so that the sequence of activities can be determined. For information on how to locate and order activity reports, see Acquiring and using recorded information.

Once located, an alternative to manually ordering activity reports generated for a trace-route message, is to use the WebSphere MQ display route application. Given the location of the activity reports, the WebSphere MQ display route application can automatically order and display the activity information, see WebSphere MQ display route application.

For more information on how to acquire and use activity information for a trace-route message, see Acquiring and using recorded information.