The active log stores all the transactions that have not yet been committed and always contains the most recent log records.
When all transactions that are part of an active log file complete, that log file is copied from the active log to the archive log. An active log file cannot be deleted until all transactions in the log file are either committed or discontinued. Transactions continue to be written to the active log files while the completed active log files are copied to the archive log. If a transaction spans all the active log files, and the files are filled before the transaction is committed, the Tivoli® Storage Manager server halts.
If the archive log is full and there is no failover archive log, the log files remain in the active log. If the active log then becomes full and there are in-progress transactions, the Tivoli Storage Manager server halts. If there is an archive failover log, it is used only if the archive log fills. It is important to monitor the archive log directory to ensure that there is space in the active log.
The Tivoli Storage Manager database manager can move active log files to the failover archive log. The database manager automatically manages the space that is available to the directories as database space. The database manager determines when database backups are required and automatically initiates them.
The location and size of the active log are set during initial configuration of a new or upgraded server. You can also set these values by specifying the ACTIVELOGDIRECTORY and the ACTIVELOGSIZE parameters of the DSMSERV FORMAT or DSMSERV LOADFORMAT utilities. Both the location and size can be changed later. To change the size of the active log, see Increasing the size of the active log. To change the location of the active log directory, see Moving only the active log, archive log, or archive failover log.
If there are performance issues with the active log, you can set the LOGBUFSZ server option in the dsmserv.opt file to 256 and restart the server.