CA 7: How the Batch Terminal Interface (BTI) program SASSBSTR processes.

Products

• CA 7 Workload Automation

Issue/Introduction

The Batch Terminal Interface (BTI) program SASSBSTR is used to send command(s) to CA 7 in batch and receive the output from the command(s) in SYSPRINT format. This technical document describes BTI processing and why you should never cancel an executing BTI job. If you do cancel the SASSBSTR program while it is executing, the next time you try to use that batch terminal, you may receive a BSTR-17 UNABLE TO START BATCH TERMINAL message.

 

 

Environment

Release:
Component: 7

Resolution

The following is the sequence of events when using the Batch Terminal Interface (BTI) program SASSBSTR:

1. If you are using Dynamic BTI Management, the BTI program dynamically allocates the BATCHIN and BATCHOUT files associated with a specific batch terminal. Normally, the BTI program constructs the data set names for these files using the data set name prefix from the CA 7 communication data set (UCC7CMDS DD). The suffix BATCHI#n/BATCHO#n is appended to the prefix to construct the full data set names (where n is the associated batch terminal number).
   Note: If a specific batch terminal (1-8) is specified and the BATCHIN and BATCHOUT DDs in the BTI JCL are coded, no dynamic allocation occurs.
2. SASSBSTR writes SYSIN to the BATCHIN data set.
3. SASSBSTR checks status flags in the UCC7CMDS (Communications Data Set) to see if CA7ONL  is up and if the batch terminal to be used is available.
4. If CA7ONL is up and the batch terminal is not in use--SASSBSTR turns on a setting in the UCC7CMDS file that tells CA 7 it has command(s) to process from this batch terminal.
5. CA 7 reads the setting in the UCC7CMDS and processes the command(s) from the appropriate BATCHIN data set.
6. As CA 7 processes the commands from BATCHIN, it writes the output from the command(s) into the appropriate BATCHOUT data set.
7. When the command(s) are completed, CA 7 turns on a setting in the UCC7CMDS file that notes this.
8. The SASSBSTR program has been 'waking' every few seconds to check the setting--when it sees that CA 7 has completed the processing, it writes BATCHOUT to SYSPRINT and ends.
   
   You should never cancel a BTI job that is executing. If the program SASSBSTR is cancelled, the batch terminal used may not be accessible again until you shutdown and restart CA7ONL.