RE: Displaying contents of spool files.

James,

Generally speaking, when an IBM command dumps like that, I would start
looking for PTF's or corrupted data.  Regardless of 80-85% of disk usage
may be scary, but it should not cause significant problems such as you
describe.

Are you reasonably current on PTF's to your operating system?  What
version/release are you running?  What is your total system capacity?

As far as getting more disk space, below are some thoughts (not meant to
be a comprehensive list nor are they in any specific order, but I think
I got most of the big ones):

- Use the RTVDSKINF and PRTDSKINF commands.  Run the RTVDSKINF command
at night as it will run for a long time.  On the PRTDSKINF command, use
the *LIB parameter.  This will give you a listing of your libraries and
their sizes.  If I recall correctly, it will also give you a list of the
largest objects on your system.  Do you know what all the libraries
represent?  Are there old test libraries which could be backed off and
deleted?  Do the sizes seem reasonable?

- Examine your database files.  Some of your larger files may contain a
high percentage of deleted records.  This space may be reclaimed using
the RGZPFM command.  WARNING - you need to verify that your applications
do not access information in the files using relative record numbers
prior to using this command.  Do this at night as the command requires
exclusive access.

- Delete old spool files.  Examine all of the output queues on your
system.  Do you have a reasonable number of spool files?  Do you know
why they are there?  Are there many of those annoying dumps?  If you
delete a large number of spools, then run the RCLSPLSTG command in batch
to remove the excess members of the spool physical files.

- Look at the IFS directories.  Use the WRKLNK or Operations Navigator
to browse through the contents of your non-library storage.  Don't
forget the folders in QDLS.  If you seem to have a high volume of files
in your directories, find out how they got there.  Did someone use the
IFS to back up the C drive of their PC?

- If you have large numbers of deleted records in a file beginning with
'QADB' in one of your system libraries, then you might benefit from
using the RCLSTG command.  This will also find and remove those damaged
objects which are not in libraries.  You may or may not get much space
back from this command.  If you have had a significant failure like
losing power and dropping like a rock, then you would probably benefit
from this.  Schedule on a weekend when you can dedicate the system for a
very long time.

- Examine your applications.  Many transaction systems maintain
historical data for analysis.  If you have large volumes of transaction
data, have those people who are responsible for the application run the
purge of the older data.  There are good business reasons to keep a lot
of history, but if that is the case, let the folks know that you need
more storage and the choice may be between their history and buying more
disks.

- Don't sweat the small stuff.  If you find yourself spending an hour a
day policing the system for extra space and you've done all of the
reasonable things like those above, buy more disk!  It is reasonable
that a system grows over time.  If you become a disk space fanatic, you
will be shunned in the cafeteria and your friends will start to avoid
you.  It's not worth it, get your technical specs together and get
management to buy more storage.

Regards,
Andy Nolen-Parkhouse

> Subject: Displaying contents of spool files.
>
> Hi Guys,
>
> Well I have a slight problem with displaying contents of spool files
of
> certain users (occurs randomly). They try to display their prints and
it
> just starts to do a dump, it hangs that interactive session up for a
few
> minutes.  I looked at the job log and it displays the following
message
>
>
> 3>> wrksplf leonid
>       space offset X'004687700' or teraspace offset
X'0000000000000000'
>       outside current limit for object QWCBT01.
>       Dump output directed to spool file1.
>       Complete thread information not available.
>
>
> I tried increasing the SYSVAL QJOBSPLA from 2048 KB to 3516KB, the
SYSVAL
> QMAXSPLF is sitting at 9999.
> We are having extreme difficulties with our disk usage, on average
around
> 80% to 85%. Are these to problems related? Any suggestions on what to
do
> to
> get more disk space?
>
> Thanks for the help,
>
> James