CPF1240/CPF1241: Job ended abnormally/normally.

Who hasn't had a "file full" message in QSYSOPR? It's about as common as a cold. But what do you do with the message? Always the same reaction? What about the QSYSOPR job end abnormally and normally messages, CPF1240 and CPF1241? They're nice to know for certain jobs, but for most jobs, you don't care. When a certain job ends, do you want to execute a command, restart the job, notify someone, or do something else?

The QSYSOPR message queue is filled with a lot of messages. You need conditional (IF?THEN?ELSE) processing to manage some of them. Conditional processing uses variables such as the time of day, day of the week, job name, user name, file name, or library name to continue processing. Think about all of the programming you might need!

OPAL to the Rescue with No Programming

Robot/CONSOLE, the message management and resource monitoring software, offers OPerator Assistance Language (OPAL), a macro language that handles conditional processing. OPAL's logic lets you perform actions based on different occurrences.

Here's an example of how to respond to the CPA5305 "file full" message:

IF    &VAR2 EQ    PAYLIB/PAYFILE1

      PAGE  ONCALL

ELSE

IF    &VAR2 EQ    CUSLIB/CUSTMST1

      ENTER I

      PAGE  ONCALL

END

In this example, &VAR2 is the name of a file (or the message data &2 when you look at the CPA5305 message using the Display Message [DSPMSGD] command). The page (PAGE) operation can send an email, text, or pager message. If a CPA5303 (file full) message arrives for the payroll file, Robot/CONSOLE sends a page to the on-call staff without extending (expanding) the file. However, if the same file full message arrives for the customer file, it automatically extends the file (the result of the I in the ENTER operation) and pages the on?call staff.

You could code additional actions. For example, you can use OPAL to count the number of times you extend a file and then notify someone after a specified number of extensions.

Do you want to know if a job ends? With OPAL, you can use conditional processing with the CPF1240 and CPF1241 messages to automate notification when an important job ends. You decide when to notify. This OPAL example reads the CPF1241 message (normal end of job):

*If job is a TCP job, restart it

IF    JOB EQ      TCP

      EXECUTE SBMJOB CMD(CALL PGM(TCP))

*If job is a JDEdwards job, send an SNMP trap to the enterprise monitor

ELSE

IF    JOB   EQ    JDEJOB

      RBCSNDSMP

ELSE

      SUPPRESS

END

In the first case, Robot/CONSOLE OPAL executes a command to restart the job; in the second case, it converts the event to an SNMP trap that works with your enterprise monitor.

You can control and manage QSYSOPR! The key is Robot/CONSOLE. Try Robot/CONSOLE free for 30 days and see how you'll save money, time, and effort. And check out Help/Systems other offerings in the MC Showcase Buyer's Guide.

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Tom Huntington is Executive Vice President of Technical Solutions at HelpSystems, and has been with the company for nearly 30 years. He works with business alliances, acquisitions and large customer relationships and ensures that the HelpSystems software works with other major software and hardware vendors worldwide.

Tom often speaks on enterprise scheduling, security, automation topics, IBM i technology, and the HelpSystems products, and hosts technical presentations on a variety of automation topics. He is the author of the HelpSystems IBM i Marketplace Survey and has written articles on automated operations, security, cloud computing, and business intelligence for leading trade journals and newsletters. He was named an IBM Champion in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 for over three decades of advocation and thought leadership on the IBM i platform.

Contact Tom at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..