Introduction

The JES Spool Data Capture facility provides a means to collect and consolidate JES Spool (SYSOUT) data sets into one (or more) files so they can be archived by Content Manager OnDemand.

The facility executes as a started task in its own address space. Throughout the remainder of this document, the facility is referred to by its program name, ARSYSPIN.

A control statement file is used to provide ARSYSPIN parameters. These parameters specify JES Spool file selection criteria (for example, from which SYSOUT classes output is to be selected) as well as other operational characteristics.

ARSYSPIN creates an intermediate output file which contains one or more Spool file(s) from one or more job(s). Each captured spool file is bracketed by a pair of separator records (see ARSYSPIN intermediate file structure for the structure of these records). A "Begin" separator record is written before the first record of the spool file and an "End" separator record is written after the last record of the spool file data. The separator records contain information that can be used to construct index values to facilitate the retrieval and viewing of the captured data sets after they have been stored by Content Manager OnDemand.

The intermediate output file is indexed and stored in Content Manager OnDemand using the ARSLOAD program. ARSYSPIN invokes ARSLOAD when sufficient data has been captured in the intermediate output file. ARSLOAD indexes the data by calling an indexer program (usually APKACIF) to extract the index values from the data and store them in an index file. ARSLOAD then adds the indexes to the database and loads the data onto archive media.

A sample APKACIF input exit is provided with ARSYSPIN which illustrates a technique for inserting a data record into the APKACIF input stream for the purpose of providing additional indexing information. This sample exit scans the JES Job Log and System Messages spool files (if they are present) to locate critical system and job processing messages (for example, messages which indicate the execution of job steps which terminated via ABEND or with non-zero completion codes), extract related values and place this information in the inserted record for subsequent indexing. See IBM® Content Manager OnDemand: Messages and Codes, SC27-1379 for a list of ABEND codes and reason codes that are associated with ARSYSPIN.

This sample APKACIF input exit is not an element of ARSYSPIN. It is provided solely as an example of a method for inserting additional records into the data stream. ARSYSPIN has its own exit facility, which might be used to insert records into the data stream. It is recommended that you use the ARSYSPIN exits instead of indexer program exits when it is practical.

After the captured Spool data has been stored into Content Manager OnDemand, ARSYSPIN repeats the process of collecting and consolidating other spool files so they too can be archived in Content Manager OnDemand. The cycle of collecting, consolidating and loading data continues until the program is terminated via the MVS™ STOP command.