DB002549 on Archive Journal can cause RC=04

Products

• IDMS
• IDMS - Database
• IDMS - ADS

Issue/Introduction

Issue: 

On CA IDMS r17 & higher, an Archive Journal may issue a DB002549 message and end with RC=04, causing someone to be paged.

Environment:  

This can occur on any CA IDMS environment running a fully supported release.

Cause: 

There is a change introduced on CA IDMS r17 regarding journal processes.

Resolution/Workaround:

There is a change introduced on CA IDMS r17 regarding journal processes. On any release there may be times when an archive journal runs when there has been no journal activity since the previous journal archive run; in other words when there is no data on the journal. On r17 and higher releases, when this occurs we issue the warning message 
DB002549 C1M357: No data was offloaded from selected journal(s) and the job ends with a Return Code of 4. 

In 16.0 and prior releases, this didn't happen because there was always something on the journal to offload: at a minimum, the JSEG record. In r17.0 this isn't the case; we no longer offload the JSEG record, which can result in nothing to offload. 

Because of this combination of events, sites may experience an increase in Archive Journal jobs that end with a RC=04. To avoid being paged in this situation, it may be necessary to update your procedures to specify that when a RC=04 occurs with the DB002549 warning message, no one needs to be paged. This is documented in the IMPACT section for PTF RO19996, which reads: 
"With R17.0, IDMS no longer offloads the JSEG record, which is the first record in the journal. Therefore, when IDMS is shutdown, and the Archive Journal run, there may be more jobs ending with a return code of 4. Operations may not be set up for this"

In some situations, it may also be worthwhile to review procedures to determine whether the production of an empty journal is due to a command such a DCMT VARY JOURNAL that may not be necessary.

Additional Information:

 

The ARCHIVE JOURNAL process is fully documented in the CA IDMS Utilities Guide.

Environment

Release: IDADSO00100-18.5-ADS-for CA-IDMS
Component: