RE: Save-while-active

At 10:30 AM 01/21/2000 -0500, you wrote:

Typically RPG programs are written to read and lock data areas at program
initialization and not release the locks until termination with LR on.  Vendor
programmers rarely seem to realize the operational implications of such things.

Save-while-active (SWA) is more like save-while-almost-active. 

If you use it properly, you typically have to quiesce the system for a short period of time.  Otherwise you have to journal and use commitment control, have somewhat more difficult save procedures and significantly more difficult restore procedures.

If you are using SWA today, and you don't use journaling and commitment control in every multi-file program, then your backup is not valid!

SWA is one of the few parts of OS/400 that permits you to shoot yourself in the foot.  I have asked Rochester for SWA enhancements to alleviate this, and they are being considered.  I think that we can except SWA improvements, but unfortunately out many releases.

IMHO, SWA today is likely not properly implemented at most accounts.  Last Fall COMMON, "Ask the Experts" night at CUDS was immediately after my SWA pitch, and I had no less than 35 accounts come up to me and admit that their SWA strategy was broken.  (If anyone wants a copy of my COMMON presentation on SWA and the article that I wrote for AS/400 experts journal last year, please send private mail to me at my other address [barsa@ibm.net].  Midrange Computing also sells a video of my pitch, although that was shot prior to the significant enhancements in SWA V4R1, so it is heavily discounted.)

Al








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