Re: RTVDIRINF and what it revealed

On 21-Mar-2014 13:48 -0700, Sam_L wrote:

I searched, I believe for instancecache (one word) and didn't find
anything that made sense to me.

Rob's first reply to the thread
<http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/201403/msg00629.html> included a
link to an IBM KB\Technote document that includes an explanation of the
"/instancecache" as subdirectory or relative path. That link however,
was buried in a dialogue, instead of presented directly and primarily,
as being a document that explains the directories and contents. That
document can be located with a web search, but that document does not
include either of "/instancecache/relationships" or
"/instancecache/resources" as tokens. And although searching on those
other two tokens yields several other documents, of those that I
searched [four of six], none actually had an occurrence of
"instancecache", so I did not know what to make of the search results.

The link to the document, some doc details, and [per small size] all
of the text:
<www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas8N1010347>
Document information:
More support for: IBM i Electronic Service Agent
Software version: 7.1.0 <ed: v7r1 v7r1m0>
Operating system(s): IBM i
Reference #: N1010347
Modified date: 2013-07-31
Title:
_ESA: What the /instancecache Directory is Used For_
"Technote (troubleshooting)

Problem(Abstract)

Starting at V7R1M0, Electronic Service Agent (ESA) uses the CISA server
to collect software and hardware inventory for IBM i operating systems.
CISA has the ability to collect a delta inventory which contains only
the new instances since the previous inventory collection.
Resolving the problem

Starting at V7R1M0, Electronic Service Agent (ESA) uses the CISA server
to collect software and hardware inventory for IBM i operating systems.
CISA has the ability to collect a delta inventory which contains only
the new instances since the previous inventory collection. In order to
implement the delta inventory collection, CISA uses the IFS folder
/instancecache to store the instances collected during the current
inventory collection (located in the resources and relationships folder)
as well as the instances which are changed since the last inventory
collection (located in the deleted-resources folder). CISA will create
the /instancecache folder when inventory is started if the directory
does not exist; therefore, there is no need to delete or backup the
/instancecache folder.

Typically the size of the resources and relationships folder will not
change, unless there are significant updates to the system. (e.g. the
operating system is updated to a new release, new hardware is installed,
or a new PTF group is applied to the system) The number of files in the
deleted-resources folder depends on how many instances are changed since
inventory was last collected. The size of the deleted-resources folder
may change all the time; however, it will never become larger than the
resources folder.

The user profile which the QSJSENDER job runs under determines the
location of the /instancecache folder. If the user profile has a home
directory, then the /instancecache folder will be located in the home
directory, for example, /home/QSECOFR. Otherwise, the /instancecache
folder will be located in the root directory (/). Note: The default home
directory for a user profile is /home/<user profile name>

The files are reused daily when Electronic Service Agent (ESA) Inventory
runs. If you remove the folder, it will cause the regenerate of full
inventory next time (comparing to only generating a subset of delta or
changed data).

The size is proportional to the number of hardware and software
inventories; for example, the logical device attached to the system, the
software or PTF installed on the system, and so on. Typical size is a
few hundreds of megabytes and will not continue to grow.

Historical Number 674547463
"

<<SNIP>>

If this is as you suppose a cache, if I delete it presumably it will
gradually come back if needed.

I would expect that. Though I would probably only delete them when
the system [or the specific feature] is not being actively utilized. As
the above document notes, "If you remove the folder, it will cause the
regenerate <sic> of full inventory next time (comparing to only
generating a subset of delta or changed data)."