Troubleshooting
Problem
Starting at 7.1, Electronic Service Agent (ESA) uses the CISA server to collect software and hardware inventory for IBM i operating systems. CISA has the ability to collect a delta inventory which contains only the new instances since the previous inventory collection.
Resolving The Problem
In order to implement the delta inventory collection, CISA uses the IFS folder /instancecache to store the instances collected during the current inventory collection (located in the resources and relationships folder) as well as the instances which are changed since the last inventory collection (located in the deleted-resources folder).
CISA will create the /instancecache folder when inventory is started if the directory does not exist; therefore, there is no need to delete or backup the /instancecache folder.
Typically the size of the resources and relationships folder will not change, unless there are significant updates to the system. (e.g. the operating system is updated to a new release, new hardware is installed, or a new PTF group is applied to the system) The number of files in the deleted-resources folder depends on how many instances are changed since inventory was last collected. The size of the deleted-resources folder may change all the time; however, it will never become larger than the resources folder.
The user profile which the QSJSENDER job runs under determines the location of the /instancecache folder.
If the user profile has a home directory, then the /instancecache folder will be located in the home directory, for example, /home/QSECOFR. Otherwise, the /instancecache folder will be located in the root directory (/).
Note: The default home directory for a user profile is /home/<user profile name>
The files are reused daily when Electronic Service Agent (ESA) Inventory runs. If you remove the folder, it will cause the regenerate of full inventory next time (comparing to only generating a subset of delta or changed data).
The size is proportional to the number of hardware and software inventories; for example, the logical device attached to the system, the software or PTF installed on the system, and so on. Typical size is a few hundreds of megabytes and will not continue to grow.
Note: Starting at 7.3, ESA no longer use the /instancecache directory. So any information could be safely deleted and shouldn't be created again.
Additional Information:
The data in the /instancecache directory is the Electronic Service Agent (ESA) inventory. If you delete the folder, it will be recreated and repopulated when inventory runs next time and a full set of data will be collected. This is valid for 7.2 and older releases.
Left in place, only the data that has changed will be updated and transmitted to IBM.
Changes that are logged are things such as PTFs being loaded on the system, system value changes, hardware or software being added or removed, network changes, etc.
You would need to identify what has recently changed on the system if the size of the folder has increased. One thought is that ESA was not enabled before and now it is. ESA is also responsible for automatic problem reporting.
If you want to stop inventory data from sending but still be able to automatically report problems, put the QS9SACOL scheduled job entry on hold (WRKJOBSCDE QS9SACOL).
Then you can delete the /instancecache directory and it should not be recreated unless there is another process outside of ESA using the same.
CISA will create the /instancecache folder when inventory is started if the directory does not exist; therefore, there is no need to delete or backup the /instancecache folder.
Typically the size of the resources and relationships folder will not change, unless there are significant updates to the system. (e.g. the operating system is updated to a new release, new hardware is installed, or a new PTF group is applied to the system) The number of files in the deleted-resources folder depends on how many instances are changed since inventory was last collected. The size of the deleted-resources folder may change all the time; however, it will never become larger than the resources folder.
The user profile which the QSJSENDER job runs under determines the location of the /instancecache folder.
If the user profile has a home directory, then the /instancecache folder will be located in the home directory, for example, /home/QSECOFR. Otherwise, the /instancecache folder will be located in the root directory (/).
Note: The default home directory for a user profile is /home/<user profile name>
The files are reused daily when Electronic Service Agent (ESA) Inventory runs. If you remove the folder, it will cause the regenerate of full inventory next time (comparing to only generating a subset of delta or changed data).
The size is proportional to the number of hardware and software inventories; for example, the logical device attached to the system, the software or PTF installed on the system, and so on. Typical size is a few hundreds of megabytes and will not continue to grow.
Note: Starting at 7.3, ESA no longer use the /instancecache directory. So any information could be safely deleted and shouldn't be created again.
Additional Information:
The data in the /instancecache directory is the Electronic Service Agent (ESA) inventory. If you delete the folder, it will be recreated and repopulated when inventory runs next time and a full set of data will be collected. This is valid for 7.2 and older releases.
Left in place, only the data that has changed will be updated and transmitted to IBM.
Changes that are logged are things such as PTFs being loaded on the system, system value changes, hardware or software being added or removed, network changes, etc.
You would need to identify what has recently changed on the system if the size of the folder has increased. One thought is that ESA was not enabled before and now it is. ESA is also responsible for automatic problem reporting.
If you want to stop inventory data from sending but still be able to automatically report problems, put the QS9SACOL scheduled job entry on hold (WRKJOBSCDE QS9SACOL).
Then you can delete the /instancecache directory and it should not be recreated unless there is another process outside of ESA using the same.
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Document Information
More support for:
IBM i
Component:
Electronic Service Agent
Software version:
7.1.0, 7.2.0, 7.3.0, 7.4.0
Operating system(s):
IBM i
Document number:
683467
Modified date:
16 July 2021
UID
nas8N1010347
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