Skip to content

Tracing an IBM 3270 or 5250 Session

While troubleshooting a problem in an IBM 3270 or 5250 session, technical support may request that you obtain one or more traces. Three kinds of traces can be done: host-data, command, and HLLAPI.

Trace File Type Description
Host-data trace (*.hst) Captures information passed between a terminal, or printer, session and the host. This type of trace is useful when a host connection is working, but the terminal or printer session does not behave as expected. Host traces are not useful when a connection to the host cannot be established.
HLLAPI trace Enables you to see the HLLAPI calls the application is making, including return codes. (HLLAPI is an API specified by IBM for automating terminal tasks.)

To generate a host-data or command trace

  1. Open a session or create a new session.

  2. Open the Start Trace dialog box. The steps depend on your user interface mode.

    User interface mode Steps
    InfoConnect Ribbon On the Tools ribbon, from the Tracing group, click Start Trace.
    InfoConnect Browser On the InfoConnect menu, choose Tools, Trace, and then Start Trace.
    TouchUx Tap the Wrench icon and then under Trace, select Start Trace.

  3. In the Start Trace dialog box, specify a name for the trace file. If you have spoken with a support technician, use your service request number as the name of your trace file.

    For this type of trace Use this extension
    Host data .HST

  4. Click Save.

    "Tracing started..." displays in the InfoConnect status bar, indicating the trace is active.

  5. Perform the actions that reproduce the problem you want recorded in the trace.

  6. Stop the Trace. The steps depend on your user interface mode.

    User interface mode Steps
    The InfoConnect Ribbon On the Tools ribbon, from the Tracing group, click Stop Trace.
    The InfoConnect Browser On the InfoConnect menu, choose Tools, Trace, and then Stop Trace.
    TouchUx On the InfoConnect menu, tap the Wrench icon and then under Trace, select Stop Trace.

To generate a HLLAPI trace

  1. Click the Windows Start button.

  2. In the Start Search box, type win.ini and press Enter to open your Win.ini file in Notepad.

  3. Add the following two lines to the end of the Win.ini file:

    [Reflection HLLAPI]
ExtTraceOn=1

  4. In the InfoConnect Workspace, open a session or create a new session to connect to your IBM host.

  5. Start the HLLAPI application.

  6. Perform the actions that reproduce the problem you want recorded in the trace.

  7. Close the HLLAPI application.

    The trace file is automatically named HLL*.TMP, where * is a randomly generated hex number. The file is located in your system's TEMP directory, if a TEMP directory has been defined in the System Environment settings. Otherwise, it is located in the root Windows directory.

  8. Re-open the Win.ini file, and change the ExtTraceOn setting to zero by changing the last line of the ini file:

    ExtTraceOn=0