Re: Newbie Question

The problem is that I can't always assume system operator will be logged
in.

I looked at Robot, Byteware, and JobWatch from Bradly Stone IIRC. JobWatch
did well and wasn't too expensive. After figuring out how I could get the
output from wrkactjob into a file and onto a linux box, I realized that
might be much more useful in the future since it could be used for getting
the status of MQs and such as well.

I had found Bruce's article and something on Code400; neither of which I
felt knowledgeable enough with RPG to install on our production box and
"learn" with.

I hadn't hear about a nagios plugin. Thanks for that hint, I'll be Googling
that.


On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 2:35 PM, Charles Wilt <charles.wilt@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

Steve,

The system includes a built in ability to interrupt a system
operator's 5250 session with certain messages, for instance the fact
that an error has occurred that in a batch program and the program is
waiting on a response.

Remember, the system's roots go back before networks were common.

Now-a-days, there's plenty of third party tools out there that provide
for monitoring and email/pager noticfication. Bytware's Messenger
Plus is one I've used at multiple shops:
http://www.bytware.com/products/mc/index.html

In addition, the IBM provided APIs allow you to roll-you-own monitoring.

You can probably find freeware/open source basic monitoring on the
web. In addition, I believe that Nagios offers an iSeries plugin.

HTH,
Charles

On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 1:25 PM, Stephen Cochran
<stephen.a.cochran.lists@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I understand the risks, and this is somewhat a temporary solution (the

old

way was having an over-dedicated person without sysadmin experience who

just

manually monitored everything).

Since the output is moving to a linux box, I'm not relying on the exact
position of any particular string, just grepping for keys (MSGW, PROG1,
etc). If those are found/not found as each warrants, then we send an

email

to warn us to check into things.

I'm sure it's my own ignorance, but I find it very surprising that a

system

heralded for it's stability lacks the built-in ability to monitor/notify

on

conditions like MSGW which can completely block functionality.

Steve


On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 1:09 PM, Scott Klement
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

Stephen,

Spooled output (e.g. OUTPUT(*PRINT)) is not designed for a program to
consume. It's designed to be printed output for a human being to read.
IBM is perfectly able to change the layout of WRKACTJOB's
OUTPUT(*PRINT) at any release, or even PTF, without providing any sort
of notification to people. They can change it around as much as they
like, because it's intended to be read by a human-being, and that won't
hurt a human being! People can adapt easily to text being in a
different place on a page.

Therefore I advise caution in your project. If your goal is simply to
take the spooled output and display it (without modification) to the
user, then WRKACTJOB OUTPUT(*PRINT) is okay.

But, if you plan to parse the output and use it programatically, PLEASE
think twice before using OUTPUT(*PRINT). Use an API, that's what
they're for. The API will perform better, and it will give you data
that's not going to break when releases change, PTFs are applied, or
anything like that.

Or, in the very very very unusual event that compatibility is broken in
an API, they'll provide notice of this in the Memo To Users and you will
be aware of the problem and can fix it before it causes grief.




Stephen Cochran wrote:

Preface to say that I'm very new to the as400, stronger unix

background.

I'm trying to write a small CL program that puts the output of

WRKACTJOB

into a PC file so that it can be FTPed off the as400, ideally having

the

CL

program executed by the FTP script using RMCD. I have the basics down

as

shown below:

WRKACTJOB OUTPUT(*PRINT)

/* Delay for 2 seconds for output to finish */
DLYJOB DLY(3)

/* Copy spool output to file KAF/WAJFILE */
CPYSPLF FILE(QPDSPAJB) TOFILE(KAF/WAJFILE) +
JOB(419900/USER/QPRTJOB) SPLNBR(*LAST)

DLTSPLF FILE(QPDSPAJB) JOB(419900/USER/QPRTJOB)

This will sometimes work, and sometimes not ending with a CPF3343

message. I

have tried ending a MONMSG line to catch those, but even putting a

DLTSPLF

command in the MONMSG ends with the same error.

At this point I've tried just about every combination of options

(using

the

job name for JOB parameter, using SMBJOB for the WRKACTJOB command,

etc)

but

always run into some problem.

So my question is, what's the correct way to accomplish this? Being

somewhat

new, code examples are always welcome. Thanks.

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