"Cannot Connect" FTP

In our environment, we have a mainframe that FTPs hundreds of files daily to
our branch AS/400s.

Invariably and unpredictably, a mainframe FTP job will abend with "Cannot
Connect".  A few minutes later, another mainframe FTP job will run
successfully.

I've been asked to look at the AS/400 side to see if there's anything we can
do to keep this from happening.  This is NOT my area of expertise.  What I've
noticed is that our branch boxes have numerous QTFTPnnnnn jobs, for example,
our Indianapolis box has 13 of these jobs "active".  When I prompt CHGNETA on
this box, the "Number of initial servers" is set to 5.  I presume (awaiting
correction from the list) that somewhere along the line since the last IPL in
October, we had 13 FTP server jobs actively transferring files from the
mainframe to the AS/400.

So, I have been asked to consider changing the "Number of initial servers" to
the maximum of 20, with the goal of minimizing the "Cannot Connect" mainframe
abends.  This doesn't make complete sense to me, but I'd be willing to try it
if there's no downside to doing so.  I presume that if a server job is not in
use, eventually it gets paged out of memory with no hit on performance.

Or are we slaying the wrong dragon?

- Dan
Dan Bale says "BAN DALE!"
IT - AS/400
Handleman Company
248-362-4400  Ext. 4952
D.Bale@Handleman.com
  Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.
  (Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)
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