An interesting subtlety of using the KILL command with OMEGAMON CICS

OMEGAMON CICS offers levels of KILL and KILL FORCE commands to kick a problem task out of CICS. This is a handy command that users need on occasion to deal with problem transactions. Users will sometimes ask me, when is it appropriate to use KILL versus KILL FORCE? I usually suggest starting with the least powerful command and progressively working your way up to KILL FORCE.

APAR OA35253 discusses an interesting scenario when using KILL versus KILL FORCE. While OMEGAMON does not require that a user issue a KILL before doing a KILL FORCE, there is apparently an occasional timing issue where if you try doing a KILL without first doing the KILL FORCE, the command may not work, and generate an error message.

Now you may see the following if a KILL FORCE is attempted without a prior KILL. The tool will process the command as a KILL, and a message will be displayed:

OC0550: FORCE OPTION REMOVED - MUST TRY KILL FIRST