Using the Run-time Tracing Utility

The BEA Tuxedo system provides a run-time tracing facility that enables you to track the execution of distributed business applications. The system has a set of built-in trace points that mark calls to functions in different categories, such as ATMI functions issued by the application or XA functions issued by the BEA Tuxedo system to an X/Open compliant resource manager.

To enable tracing, you must specify a tracing expression that contains a category, a filtering expression, and an action. The category indicates the type of function (such as ATMI) to be traced. The filtering expression specifies which particular functions trigger an action. The action indicates the response to the specified functions by the BEA Tuxedo system. The system may, for example, write a record in the ULOG, execute a system command, or terminate a trace process. A client process can also propagate the tracing facility with its requests. This capability is called dyeing; the trace dye colors all services that are called by the client.

There are two ways to specify a tracing expression: by setting the TMTRACE environment variable, or by specifying the expression in a server environment.

You can activate or deactivate the tracing option using the changetrace command of tmadmin. This command enables you to overwrite the tracing expression on active client or server processes. Administrators can enable global tracing for all clients and servers, or for a particular machine, group, or server.

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