ABP - ASRA Abend S0C4 breakpoint on a CICS FREEMAIN command while monitoning a program with Intertest CICS

Products

• InterTest - CICS
• InterTest - Batch

Issue/Introduction

Monitoring a COBOL program with Intertest CICS and receives a ABP breakpoint and the following message when issuing a CICS freemain of shared storage: 
ASRA Abend S0C4 detected and prevented. Caused by an attempt to use op/sys protected area.

The program runs fine if turning off Intertest CICS monitoring. 

Cause

A CICS FREEMAIN of shared storage was issued.  Intertest CICS issues a ABP breakpoint to warn user that freeing shared storage may be needed by another task.
 

Resolution

Specify the USH=ON parameter for the program issuing the freemain to unprotect shared storage.
 
USH Unprotect Shared Storage
 
The USH option removes storage protection from all main storage areas residing in the SHARED storage subpool. This option lets a program change all CLASS=SHARED storage, and other storage areas in the SHARED subpool. FREEMAINs of these areas are permitted; however, the four-byte Storage Accounting Areas remain protected.

You cannot set the USH=ON option from the Intertest CICS menus.  Specify the USH=ON option using an Intertest CICS line command at a clear screen.
Once you have breakpoints set for your program you can enter the following command from a clear screen in CICS to add the USH=ON option to your program. In the example below the program is COBDEMO

cntl=on,prog=cobdemo,ush=on

 CAIN4580 USH option(s) processed
 CAIN4513 This request has been processed.
 
Reference: USH Unprotect Shared Storage