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Status Delivered
Workspace IBM i
Categories Print
Created by Guest
Created on Jan 10, 2020
Merged idea
This idea has been merged into another idea. To comment or vote on this idea, please visit IBMI-I-2280 CPF warning when system has reached 90% of 2.6 Million spool files.

Warning message to indicate maximum number of spooled files on system is approaching Merged

IBM i system w/heavy spooling (in this case, a bank)


Use Case:

Need a warning message to indicate that the system is nearing the maximum number of spooled files. Currently, there is not a warning message. The following message is issued after it is too late:
CPF4235: Not able to open spooled file. Reason code is 2. Reason code 2 -- All available spool identifiers (IDs) have been used. The system only supports 2,610,000 unique spool IDs. Once this message is received, no more spooled files can be created. This is a significant impact to production.

A warning message like the following would help:
CPFnnnn
Message . . . . : Nearing maximum number of spooled files for the system.
Cause . . . . . : The system only supports 2,610,000 unique spool IDs. The system currently has NNN number of spooled files.
Recovery . . . : Take immediate action to reduce the number of spooled files on the system.

Possibly, function can be added to the QSPLMAINT to keep track of the number of spooled files on the system.


Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    Reply
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    Oct 30, 2020

    I misspoke earlier. This RFE is a duplicate of RFE 143905. That RFE has a status of Uncommented Candidate.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Sep 29, 2020

    We recognize that the usefulness of a threshold warning of this type. We think we could do this in a fairly efficient manner for the spooled files in *SYSBAS. This efficient technique is not available to use for spooled files in IASPs. Since IASPs have a much higher limit on the number of spooled files, would a solution limited to *SYSBAS meet your requirements?

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Apr 21, 2020

    The CEAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM view this as a MEDIUM priority requirement that should be addressed.

    Background: The COMMON Europe Advisory Council (CEAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CEAC has a crucial role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual RFEs on the broader IBM i community and has therefore reviewed your RFE.

    To find out how CEAC help to shape the future of IBM i, see CEAC @ ibm.biz/BdYSYj and the article "The Five Hottest IBM i RFEs Of The Quarter" at ibm.biz/BdYSZT

    Therese Eaton – CEAC Program Manager, IBM

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Feb 18, 2020

    I use the tracking in the system limits file for issues such as this. For reference, system limits are documented here:
    https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_73/rzajq/rzajqviewsyslimits.htm

    It's a simple query to see how close you are to the maximum number of spooled files on the system:
    select * from qsys2.syslimits where limit_id = 19002;

    However, this limit is one that is not supported for the system limits alerting.
    https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_73/rzajq/rzajqsyslimitalert.htm

    I would like to see this specific limit added to the list of limits that have a message sent to QSYSOPR if nearing the limit, which is the spirit of this RFE.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Jan 12, 2020

    I support this change. I have an open RFE for the debugger where when debugging SQLRPGLE programs, I have run out of spool files the system creates for QPJOBLOB. In this instance, I am not able to complete the debug, least of all to say the amount of time it takes to get to maximum spool files.

    The number of spool files needs to be increased and the increase could be handled like physical files where the initial size or in this instance, number of spool files a job can create before hard haltng the job. I request a prompt to increase the number beyond the initial number of files.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Jan 11, 2020

    That information is recorded to the Sytem Limt file SYSLMTTBL: https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/ssw_ibm_i_73/rzajq/rzajqserviceshealth.htm

    You can monitor the file and take the appropriate action.