First up let’s look at a print screen of the work with active jobs displays showing the jobs RUN PRIORITY

Look at the column labeled “PTY” … To see this column you have to press F11 from the WRKACTJOB display

So the jobs RUN PRIORITY (emphasis added) allows the higher priority jobs (in this case it’s sort of counter intuitive because the priorities go from lowest to highest, so 99 would be very low and 1 would be high priority) to get the best service from the CPU.

So sometimes it helps to crank up the job priority for a job that needs extra processing resources, technically it only needs to be one level higher than the other jobs in the same subsystem. Typically batch jobs run at priority 50 and interactive runs at priority 20 because you don’t want green screen folks waiting a long time while reports can crank away in the background without using up a bunch of system resources.

Now let’s look at a job priority. This is a totally different thing from the run priority we just discussed. The job priority is how a job is sequenced to run while it’s waiting in a job queue. Here is a print screen from the WRKJOBQ command.

These priorities rank from 1 to 9 with 1 being the highest priority.

As you can see from the print screen “JOB1″ has a job priority of 6 which puts it at the bottom of the job queue. So JOB1 will wait until jobs JOB2 and JOB3 have run before it get’s submitted to the subsystem for processing. Also if another job with a higher job priority is placed in the job queue it will still wait it’s turn to run.

Often times people will want to be able to change the run priority of a job, this is accomplished by changing the subsystem configuration including the job description used. But that’s an article for another day.

Another area you will see priorities like this are in the output queues with spool files and they function similarly.

John Andersen is an IT manager and ten year veteran of the AS/400 platform. If you liked this article then you will be interested in his Power System Jump Start course. You can claim your copy today by logging on to http://www.midrangejumpstart.com

If you inherited a box that has been pre-configured then the setups for the system values is usually done for you requiring very little intervention on your part. But for a brand new system out of the box you will have to setup the operating system and the values.

The AS/400 system values are basically flags that configure and control various aspects of your IBM system. From security, job control and configuration there is a system value for just about every aspect of administration.

One prime example is the QCTLSBSD value. This essentially tells the operating system how to handle the jobs. Either run everything under one primary subsystem called QBASE or to divvy jobs up into there own subsystems like QBATCH and QINTER for interactive (“green-screen”) jobs.

By default, out of the box your AS/400, iSeries and IBM i will be setup for QBASE. In most all cases, if this is a production box this is something you WILL want to change for improved performance and to prevent jobs from directly competing for the same resources.

To review your system values use the command Display System Value DSPSYSVAL and press F4 to prompt for the values. There are a lot of them and you will want to make use of the F1 key to gather more information about them.

Another important system value is the AUTOCFG value. What this does is tell the operating system that when a device is connected to automatically create and configure the device description.

This can help you out immensely, especially when setting up terminal sessions to connect to the system. It will create the devices for you saving you tons of time and frustration.

Of course there is a drawback as well: when you move a device around like a tape drive it will be treated like another device and be renamed. For instance if the tape device was originally setup as TAP01 it will then be TAP02. When this happens you them have to manually intervene and change the device descriptions to get things straightened out.

And if you have to comply with Sarbox regulations then start becoming familiar with the security features of the i operating system including the system values for object auditing and journaling. These offer allot of granularity when it comes to security auditing.

Well the long and the short of it is from an end user standpoint it depends. Why is that? Because the AS/400 is just a platform, just like Windows is a platform. The actual business software runs on top the platform. Does that make sense? The way you enter in data and work with the programs will be different from software package to software package that runs on the AS/400.

So ultimately there is not one good answer on how to learn the AS/400.

However there are almost always commonalities in screen layout design that all users should be familiar with. For instance F3 exits a screen whilst F5 refreshes or updates a screen. If you need help with a specific field or screen then F1 usually brings up the help info. And so on.

Learn the “F” keys and learn them well.

The plus (+) key on the numeric keypad is generally mapped as a field exit key which slides your numbers over to the right in a field. This is handy when entering in numeric data.

Now this is an overly simplistic view of how things work on the AS400, but at least its a starting point for most total beginners. But there really is no good answer to learning an AS/400 from an end user perspective because you will need to learn the software that is being used. Hopefully the place you get hired at will at least train you on the software and it’s nuances.

Now there are some things that are good for you to know and can certainly give you a leg up or make you a power user. Like Operations Navigator, iSeries Navigator or i Navigator. Whatever IBM decides on renaming it does not matter, its what it can do for you that matters.

For instance almost every user would like to download spool files (aka reports) to there PC so they can send them electronically, email or import the data into another program like MS Excel. This is an area where i Navigator shines, you can simply track down your spool files within Navigator and then literally drag and drop it on your desktop where it is then instantly converted to a format compatible with your workstation. Pretty simple stuff that can save you hours of work.

There is alot more to be said for Navigator and I am just barely scratching the surface but most of the other tools built into it are for system administration and configuration tasks, not for end users unless you have someone that is really a power user or sophisticated enough not to screw something up. Fortunately when installing Navigator you can pick and choose which modules a user will have installed and can access.

End users should be familiar with the printing systems and how to control printable output in the form of spool files. Everything that is printable is called a spool file. Spool files spool in output queues which are then prints the document on a physical printer. So you should become familiar with the Work With Spooled Files command WRKSPLF.

WRKSPLF will show you all of your current spool files or the spool files of another user, where they are and what the status is. If you need to know why that report you just created isn’t printing this should be your first stop. There could be a message waiting.

If a printer has a bunch of documents printing on it you can use WRKSPLF to move the spooled file to another printer that may be idle.

Another frequently asked question is where the heck is that job I just submitted? So users should familiarize themselves with the Work With Submitted Jobs command WRKSBMJOB.

WRKSBMJOB displays all of the jobs you have submitted and where they are currently residing. Most importantly there is the “— status—” column that displays the current status of that job. This is important because if the job is waiting for it’s turn to actually run it the WRKSBMJOB display will show that it is waiting in the job queue so you know that it hasn’t run yet.

If the job shows the status of ”ACTIVE” then it is still processing and hasn’t finished running yet.

If the job shows a status of “OUTQ” then it has finished running and the spool file is waiting on an output queue so you can go and print it.

See how easy that is? To make your life even easier the WRKSBMJOB screen allows you to take an option to look at a message that may be waiting on the job or to go directly to the spooled files it created so you can release them or move to another outq.

Check it out here:
http://www.midrangejumpstart.com/

-John Andersen

AS400 Programming Development Manager Menu

Let’s first take a look at Work With Libraries function of PDM. At a basic level this option allows you to reivew and change libraries on your system, sort of like the Work With Libraries (WRKLIB) command but using a little bit better (depending on your preference) interface with some different capabilities.

 

PDM Work With Libraries

By taking option 12 for work with from the Work With Libraries screen takes you into the second PDM option we will cover which is Work With Objects. Once again in work with objects you have all the familiar options to change, copy, delete, rename objects and so on. So similiar options is a recurring theme throughout the utility.

PDM Work With Objects

A nice feature built right into the PDM tool in the work objects screen is the ability to Position to a file name or object type which comes in really handy when you have to wade through libraries with hundreds and even thousands of objects. I am really only touching the surface of what can be done with the PDM utility.

Like the name implies it really is a tool to make programmers jobs easier.

PDM User Defined Options

For instance Programming Development Manager comes with the ability to create user definable options. These options are essentially shortcut keys you enter on the option line to perform some sort of action. Many of the more popular commands are pre-programmed options for you, for example Work With Spool Files (command WRKSPLF) is setup as option SP. So if you simply enter SP on the option line it calls up your spooled files.

The option WA calls the Work With Active Jobs (WRKACTJOB) command. Another handy option that has been pre-configured is the Call command which has been defined as option C. In this instance the option for Call is setup to pass parameters to the command for you. So if you are working with source members and wanted to call a program you just compiled (or any program for that matter) simply put the cursor in the option field next the source file you compiled, enter ‘C’ in that option field and then press the enter key and that exact program will be called.

I use the C option in PDM quite frequently when compiling and testing out programs that don’t require additional user entered parameters to be passed. Another technique to get around this is to create a small “wrapper” CL or CLLE program to pass the parameters for you.

PDM Work With

You can also setup your own PDM defined options by pressing the F6 key on the Work With User-defined Options screen and following the prompts. Lastly PDM makes working with any kind of source member easy by calling up the Source Entry Utility (also known as SEU) by using option 2.

Understanding how to enter DDS specifications into a source file and compile them into physical and logical files is really as far as you need to go for 90% of the tasks involved in running a 400. Yes, nowadays you see alot about using DDL (essentially SQL) to create tables but I am still a fan of DDS and do create views using SQL statements when it makes sense to do so.

Recently I have been working on a tier three ERP system from one of those conglomerated software consolidation companies. Chances are you have heard of them if you have been around ERP systems in the last few years. 

The one thing I really hate about this system (which uses a mainstream database on the backend running on a Win32 platform) is how clunky the report writing process is. It’s not elegent, and it’s not tightly integrated into the system itself. In short I think it sucks.

This is precisely an area where the AS/400, iSeries and System i shines. You have so many native tools and applications to work with the underlying database. You have tools like Query/400, Query Manager, direct SQL and so much more that simply plugs right in and goes. You don’t have to learn a bunch of complicated syntax to use programs like Query/400 either because its entirely menu driven.

Many people these days are frowning on “green-screen” based programs.

My take is always to use the right tool for the job and sometimes that is a query report or interactive lookup screen using runqry or query definition. The command line and perhaps a small CL program allows this to be transparent to the user, so who cares if the resulting data is displayed on an old fashioned green-screen.

So to get started writing reports check out the following short list of commands/programs:

WRKQRY
STRQMQRY
RUNQRY
Operations Navigator (allows you to execute and thoroughly examine SQL statements)

One area that used to be lacking on the AS400 was report manipulation or report mining tools. People used to print out thousands of pages of reports (and many still do) just to pull out a couple pages with the pertinent details and then throw the rest away.

But nowadays there are so many third party tools that will take your spool files and convert them into plain text for your PCs. Even Operations Navigator has had this capability for many years. It even allows you to search through files and outqs. End users can even do this with a little bit of training on Operations Navigator, it’s not that difficult and they will love you for it.

There really aren’t many excuses for getting the most out of your systems today. We aren’t living in the stone age where data extraction and reporting writing for the AS/400 is complicated thanks to the myraid of tools that have been available for many years now.

Query/400 is completely menu driven, making it very easy to use and friendly from a user standpoint so you don’t have to learn any complicated syntax or SQL… although it can certainly help if you do know SQL.

To fire up Query/400 simply type in “WRKQRY” on a command line and you should be greated with a simple looking screen asking you to build a new query or modify an existing one.

Once you enter in the name of your query definitition you will be brough to a menu of options. Now for probably 90% of the queries you will write you will probably only ever use the options for:

Specify file selections
Select and sequence fields
Select records

This gives you a straight up query of one or more files with as many constraints as you can possibly think of. Sometimes you will add an option to sort by one or more fields.

One handy feature of Query is using the F5 key to run and preview the report. But keep in mind that when you run this option is can consume a lot of system resources especially if temporary indexes have to be built. The simple rule of thumb is the longer it takes for something to show up when pressing F5 the less often you should use it when building your queries.

I like Query/400 *alot* and although I don’t write many permanent queries that are saved and used I find it an indespensible tool for quick and dirty reports to validate data or for looking up information. Even though Query/400 has been around for ages and ages it is still a great tool and because of its versatility I highly recommend you use it for all of your report building and data inquiry needs.

There is a large misconception running about the user community these days that the AS/400 and iSeries platform are old antiquated machine as scarce as the dinosaurs and just as hard to use with its crummy looking text only interface commonly known as the green screen.

This is a major sticking point for business looking to buy an AS/400 and especially for some system administrators that have been groomed on a Windows based environment with point and click ease of use and a built in wizard to do just about everything.

But there is really good news for those people who absolutely hate the old fashioned green-screens that the AS/400 and iSeries platform is known for… there has been a tool available to make maintenance and administration tasks easier. That cool graphical user interface tool is called Operations Navigator, it comes along with your regular licenses so it doesn’t cost any additional money and it has been available now for many years.

That’s right I said that the operations navigator utility is a GUI you can use with your AS/400 and iSeries systems. With it you can maintain users, catalogue system patches and program temporary fixes, watch jobs, administer printer output queues and more.

You want to run an SQL query to delete some data sets or run a quick and dirty report and export the results into Excel? Operations navigator has you covered. Want to copy files from your computer over to the integrated file system on the AS/400? Operations navigator can do that too.

If you are into keeping a watchful eye on the health and performance data of your system, once configured, operations navigator will spit out great looking charts and graphs of important performance metrics.

Did you know that you can also download your reports as text or pdf files from your AS/400 or iSeries with operations navigator, this very feature alone can replace you dependency for expensive third party software packages you may currently be using.

One of the greatest features not otherwise available until operations navigator came around is the ability to diagnose SQL statements and present them in a graphical diagram with each of the steps the system used to execute it in very thorough detail.

There is also a whole feature set available that will collect performance data on your programs and files and record how often temporary indexes are built, you then simply go back and review this data after running a collection and it will recommend indexes to build that will improve the performance of your reports and queries dramatically.

Eventually you may find yourself having to perform some tasks in the command line environment, but as time moves on more and more of features are being built natively into operations navigator with each new release slowly removing the dependency on the green-screen. Who knows though, you may even become a convert like some of us old 400 folks and start to use the command line interface instead of the GUI.

Nonetheless oprations navigator has such a rich set of tools and its ease of use make it an excellent tool to administering your AS/400 and iSeries systems so it is definitely here to stay.

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This is where report mining comes in.

You may not have heard the term “report mining” before but essentially report mining is just taking your printable reports from your AS40 or iSeries and bringing them over to your PC into a program like Excel, then scrubbing them up a bit.

Maybee you need to calculate some additional fields or condense the data into an easy to read format. This is where report mining can really come through.

Getting data off of your AS400 to a PC used to be a major hassle back in the dark ages… in fatc people hated it so much that software vendors sprung up all over to accomplish this now routine task.

If you have the luxury of having a programmer on staff that can write reports all day long then your in luck. But some places can’t and hiring an outside consultant to write reports at $175 dollars an hour adds up quickly.

Another option is using the excellent tool you might have is Query/400. This allows you to write simple reports joining together data from one or more files. 

Unfortunatley Query has limited logic capabilities that are handled better by regular programmed reports, but for probably 80% of the reporting needed it will suffice.

Anyhow, back to report mining. If the data you want to get at is already a part of an existing report then you are in luck. No need to write a query since you can just mine that report to get what you want.

The process is really simple and takes only a few mouse clicks.

Using Operations Navigator you can simply browse the printer data on the system then drag and drop any report on your As400 or iSeries onto your desktop. The software then automatically converts it into a text file.

Now this works with reports that are still in an outq on the system. The best way to handle this is to have your spool files go to your own output queue that is not attached to a writer.

After copying the file over to your PC, simply open up that text file with the Excel data import wizard, add the column breaks, clean up the report headings and you are off to the races.

This really is a poor mans way to generate reports, but its really simple and you should already have all the tools to do it installed on your computer.

All you need is Operations Navigator (aka iSeries Navigator) and Excel.

If you need something more complex then look into the other options out there like writing reports using Query or the Excel Add-in.