Why are multiple VTAT transactions seen when monitoring a program with CA Intertest for CICS?

Products

• InterTest - CICS
• InterTest - Batch
• InterTest VSE - CICS

Issue/Introduction

An application programmer may notice multiple messages similar to the following written to the CICS //MSGUSR DD while stepping through code.
20:18:12 CTSREGION TERMID USERID VTAT SET TASK(27854)
20:18:13 CTSREGION TERMID USERID  VTAT SET TASK(27856)
20:18:13 CTSREGION TERMID USERID VTAT SET TASK(27857)
What is the reason for all these messages and multiple VTAT task numbers?

Why are multiple VTAT transactions, each with a separate task number, executed while stopping at breakpoints and stepping through a program?

Environment

Monitoring a CICS program with CA InterTest for CICS release 10 or release 11.

Resolution

• The VTAT transaction is an internal CA InterTest for CICS transaction used only for handling breakpoints
  • A separate VTAT task is created and executed at each stop in a program. 
  • This can occur either at a breakpoint or while single stepping through code.
  • It is possible to see many VTAT tasks created and executed during program monitoring 

Additional Information

Information about VTAT can be found in the Product Requirements section of the CA InterTest and CA Symdump release 10.0 or release 11.0 documentation wiki