RE: Time out on DDM data area

[Buck Calabro <mcalabro@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday, September 29, 1998 8:38 PM, Terry Herrin 
[SMTP:therrin@isaac.net] wrote:
> I created a DDM data area on our primary AS/400, pointing it to a data
> area on our backup AS/400.  I retrieve the data area contents using
> the RTVDTAARA command within a CL.  As long as communication is up
> between the machines, everything works fine.  If I bring the APPC
> controller down on the local machine, the CL will immediately give an
> error and halt, which is what I want it to do.  The problem is when
> the controller is down on the remote machine.  Instead of giving me an
> error, the CL goes into an infinite wait, status ICFW.  I let it sit
> over an hour and it did nothing but sit there.  Does anyone know what
> I need to change in order to have the CL timeout and give up?

We have similar problems using Async comm lines to talk to credit bureaus, 
telephone switches, paging terminals, etc.  I believe (not confirmed) that 
the AS/400 is trying some internal error recovery, because the RPG program 
never regains control: I have been able to view this while in debug, so I 
know for a fact that for *some* classes of comm error, the RPG program 
never regains control.  Yes, I have WAITRCD specified, and yes, I am 
checking the major/minor after *every* I/O op.

I suspect your CL program is encountering the same condition.

The only way out that I've been able to come up with is to set up a 
watchdog timer: the comm process sends a message to the watchdog every 15 
minutes.  If 20 minutes elapse and the watchdog hasn't heard from the comm 
process, the watchdog kills the comm job, varies off line/ctl/dev and 
restarts the comm job.  Resetting the config works every time.

Please, somebody tell me I don't need to do this!

Buck Calabro
Commsoft, Albany, NY
mailto:mcalabro@commsoft.net

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