RE: - AS/400 system value for retention of spool files

Jim Sloan's TAATOOLS contains a number of spool file management options.  We use
them to manage BPCS spool files.

Wayne Bruning
The Lucks Company

-----Original Message-----
From: bpcs-l-bounces+wbruning=lucks.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bpcs-l-bounces+wbruning=lucks.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Al Mac
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 9:37 AM
To: SSA's BPCS ERP System
Subject: Re: [BPCS-L]- AS/400 system value for retention of spool files

For us, review of our report retention prudence falls on my shoulders as 
computer janitor.  Some people effectively ignore their reports.  Some 
delete them far too fast.  I thank God that we have ample disk space for 
this DSPSYSSTS collection, and that it is few and far between that 
something goes wrong such that we need access to the prematurely deleted 
reports.

When we delete spool file entries, this creates disk space.  How soon is 
that disk space recovered?  If recovered too soon, it makes for 
inefficiency the next time another report needs more disk space.  I do not 
remember how QRCLSPLRTG manages this, but it is one of the reasons we use 
GO POWER to do some shutdowns in wee hours of weekends when no one using 
the system.

How much disk space is allocated, not for the reports themselves, but for 
the associated jobs that created those reports?  DSPJOBTBL

We have never yet hit our maximum spooled files QMAXSPLF, but we found it 
necessary to modify some places in BPCS where some programs, such as CST270 
inside CST900, habitually exceed the allowed size of a single report.  We 
recently created a variant of INV260.
When we run INV260 for one facility, it typically creates 10,000 pages.
The variant is only a few hundred pages, because it only lists those items 
for which we actually have inventory that has a cost variance.
I believe there is a design flaw with INV260 in that it gets item class 
from IIM rather than CIC.

We also have individuals who use the spool file as a filing cabinet.
I am one of them.
I have added many drawers to this filing cabinet system to help organize 
the reports into various categories.
e.g. QSCRAP contains statistical analysis reports associated with our 
scrap, so we can compare stories over several weeks or months.

My main concerns have been:
* I would prefer that people are aware of how often we do backups, and they 
not delete what is necessary to recover to the last backup if that is ever 
needed.
* Some people delete spool file reports before they know what they will 
need, when there is no way to reconstruct the data in those reports, 
without going through enormous effort.
* Our current backup strategy only saves data files and software, not spool 
file contents, but we have stuff sitting in spool file from MONTHS ago.
* End Fiscal Reports that we do not print, to save paper ... we just 
extract the total pages.  If we were to have a disaster, we could 
potentially lose a lot of end fiscal data.

I have reminded the senior management of those individuals, that what came 
with OS/400 does not provide for backup of contents of spool files, that 
third party software is available to do so, and that we could also 
experiment with moving critical reports to PC based collections, such as a 
CD Rom containing all critical reports for each end-fiscal period.

If I had my choice of what third party software to get to better manage our 
resources, it would be ROBOT from www.helpsystems.com Help Systems, such as 
Robot/Reports, but I also recognize that there are several enhancements to 
BPCS that would serve the company better than doing something about our 
thousands of reports that cannot be backed up.

Software can also be written to do some of the spool file management, using 
such commands as CHGSPLFA in which I would love it there was more 
flexibility in DLTSPLF to say kill all reports older than some cut-off date 
that have certain other characteristics in common.

GO CLEANUP does not cleanup some stuff fast enough to our liking.
On our backup menu, we have an option to purge unwanted system logs, there 
as a reminder to run regularly.

Al Macintyre
Global Wire

>  Under the "GO CLEANUP"  there are options to clear job logs,    messages
>,    system spool files.
>I don't know of one for all spool files.
>
>We have individuals that use the spool file for a filing cabinet.
>
>Roger Henady
>Thorco Industries
>
>"Dan Sweeney" <dsweeney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject
>[BPCS-L]- AS/400 system value for retention of spool files
>
>I am trying to locate a system value for the global retention of spool
>file entries.  Is there a system value available?
>
>Dan Sweeney
>Senior Technical Consultant
>PHOENIX Business Consulting
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