IBM Support

Manually creating ESA job schedulers

Troubleshooting


Problem

Some customers prefer to create job scheduler entries by themselves for use with any job scheduler application. After applying these PTFs, customers may specify to suppress the job scheduler entries creation. These PTFs won’t have any impact on current customers unless the special instructions are followed. This document will provide the reference for those customers who will manually create the job scheduler entries.

Environment

A new property  was added in '/QIBM/ProdData/os400/ServiceAgent/SAJava.properties' to not submit the scheduler jobs automatically by ESA.                       
                                                                                 
    The new property :                                                            
    ##Enable Job Scheduler automatically                                         
    suppressionJobScheduler=false  
                                             
  •     Set this property to false (default) if you want ESA to create the  scheduler jobs.
  •     Set this property to true if you do not want ESA to create the scheduler jobs. (i.e. You will use a different scheduler than OS default) 
The PTFs to enable the feature are: 
Description V7R2 V7R3 V7R4
Implementing the suppression in the cpp for command CHGSRVAGTA. SI73096 SI72843 SI72643
Includes the new SAJava.properties which adds item for suppression job schedulers. SI73095 SI72869 SI72644

Resolving The Problem

NOTE:
If you don’t need to manually create job scheduler entries, this document could be ignored.

When ESA for IBM i is activated, there will be 5 jobs* schedulers created by default.

JOB

DESCRIPTION

QS9AUTOPTF

This job scheduler entry causes the auto PTF task to be run. The entry is created when ESA is enabled (using the CHGSRVAGTA command) and Auto PTF is enabled (using the AUTOPTF parameter of the CHGSRVAGTA command).

The job scheduler entry is run once a week. The day of the week that is used can be selected by the system operator, but which days the system operator can select from are limited to three. The three days available to choose from are calculated based on the system serial number.

The auto PTF task requests download of the auto PTF policy once every several weeks. As the maximum period for a job scheduler entry is one week, the auto PTF task maintains counters in the QS9AUTOPTF data area to keep track of the number of elapsed weeks.

QS9SACOL

This job scheduler entry causes inventory to be collected (and optionally sent as well). The entry is created when ESA is enabled (using  the CHGSRVAGTA command). 

This job scheduler entry is run every day of the week. The user can select the time the inventory is collected by using the SRVINF parameter of the CHGSRVAGTA command. If the send time is set to be the same as the collect time, then this job scheduler entry causes collection and sending of inventory.

QSJERRRPT

This job scheduler entry is run once whenever

the CHGSRVAGTA command enables ESA. This entry collects inventory for immediate problem reporting. This consists of sending a hardware and software inventory as well as processing any ESA reported software problems that are identified in the QSRVAGT/QASJPRBDOC database file.

This job scheduler entry is also run by QS9PRBSND for software problems.

QSJHEARTBT

This job scheduler entry causes the heartbeat task to be run. The entry is created when ESA is enabled (using the CHGSRVAGTA command).

The job scheduler entry is daily. The heartbeat task runs once every several days.

The length of this interval is specified on the SRVINF parameter of the CHGSRVAGTA command. The heartbeat task maintains counters in the QSJHEARTBT data area to keep track of the number of elapsed days.

QS9UAK

This job scheduler entry causes Update Access Key refreshing. The entry is created when ESA is enabled (using the CHGSRVAGTA command).

The job scheduler entry is run once a week. The day of the week that is used can be selected by the system operator.

*Note: QS9UAK scheduled job is only required when system is a Standalone partition over a Power 8 or higher. To use this function, the Firmware Update Policy should be *OPSYS.

If the Firmware Update Policy is *HMC, it is not required. 

More information on Manage update access keys with IBM Electronic Service Agent (ESA) on IBM i


Default information of ESA jobs automatically created on scheduler (WRKJOBSCDE)

 Job name . . . . . . . . . . . . JOB          > QS9AUTOPTF               
 Command to run . . . . . . . . . CMD            CALL PGM(QSYS/QS9AUTOPTF)
 Frequency  . . . . . . . . . . . FRQ            *WEEKLY                  
 Schedule date  . . . . . . . . . SCDDATE        *NONE                    
 Schedule day . . . . . . . . . . SCDDAY         *SUN                     
 Schedule time  . . . . . . . . . SCDTIME        'RUN_TIME'   
 Recovery action  . . . . . . . . RCYACN         *SBMRLS   
 Job description  . . . . . . . . JOBD           QS9SRVAGT 
  Library  . . . . . . . . . . .                  QSYS    
Job queue  . . . . . . . . . . . JOBQ           *JOBD     
User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . USER           *CURRENT   
Message queue  . . . . . . . . . MSGQ           *USRPRF   



 Job name . . . . . . . . . . . . JOB          > QS9SACOL                       
 Command to run . . . . . . . . . CMD            QSYS/WRKSRVAGT TYPE(*SRVINF) COLSRVINF(*YES) SNDSRVINF(*YES)
 Frequency  . . . . . . . . . . . FRQ            *WEEKLY                        
 Schedule day . . . . . . . . . . SCDDAY         *ALL                           
 Schedule time  . . . . . . . . . SCDTIME        'RUN_TIME'   
 Job description  . . . . . . . . JOBD           QSJINV    
  Library  . . . . . . . . . . .                  QSYS    
Job queue  . . . . . . . . . . . JOBQ           *JOBD     
User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . USER           *CURRENT   
Message queue  . . . . . . . . . MSGQ           *USRPRF   


 Job name . . . . . . . . . . . . JOB          > QSJERRRPT                      
 Command to run . . . . . . . . . CMD            QSYS/WRKSRVAGT TYPE(*SRVINF) COLSRVINF(*YES) SNDSRVINF(*YES) SRVINF(*PRBID)
 Frequency  . . . . . . . . . . . FRQ            *ONCE                          
 Schedule date  . . . . . . . . . SCDDATE        '*CURRENT'                     
 Schedule day . . . . . . . . . . SCDDAY         *NONE                          
 Schedule time  . . . . . . . . . SCDTIME        'RUN_TIME'    
 Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SAVE           *YES     
 Recovery action  . . . . . . . . RCYACN         *SBMRLS  
Job description  . . . . . . . . JOBD           *USRPRF  
Job queue  . . . . . . . . . . . JOBQ           *JOBD    
User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . USER           *CURRENT  
Message queue  . . . . . . . . . MSGQ           *USRPRF  


Job name . . . . . . . . . . . . JOB          > QSJHEARTBT               
Command to run . . . . . . . . . CMD            CALL PGM(QSYS/QSJHEARTBT)
Frequency  . . . . . . . . . . . FRQ            *WEEKLY                  
Schedule date  . . . . . . . . . SCDDATE        *NONE                    
Schedule day . . . . . . . . . . SCDDAY         *ALL                     
Schedule time  . . . . . . . . . SCDTIME        'RUN_TIME'                
Job description  . . . . . . . . JOBD           QSJINV   
  Library  . . . . . . . . . . .                  QSYS   
Job queue  . . . . . . . . . . . JOBQ           *JOBD    
User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . USER           *CURRENT  
Message queue  . . . . . . . . . MSGQ           *USRPRF  


Job name . . . . . . . . . . . . JOB          > QS9UAK               
Command to run . . . . . . . . . CMD            QSYS/WRKSRVAGT TYPE(*UAK)
Frequency  . . . . . . . . . . . FRQ            *WEEKLY                  
Schedule date  . . . . . . . . . SCDDATE        *NONE                    
Schedule day . . . . . . . . . . SCDDAY         *SUN                     
Schedule time  . . . . . . . . . SCDTIME        'RUN_TIME'  
Recovery action  . . . . . . . . RCYACN         *SBMRLS                
Job description  . . . . . . . . JOBD           QS9SRVAGT   
  Library  . . . . . . . . . . .                  QSYS   
Job queue  . . . . . . . . . . . JOBQ           *JOBD    
User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . USER           *CURRENT  
Message queue  . . . . . . . . . MSGQ           *USRPRF  
Generally, ESA specifies the day of the week and the time on the scheduled date at which the job is submitted. We could specify any parameters according to our requirement.
When using different job schedulers, the command line may be different. But command should be same (CMD parameter).

JOB name and JOBD are recommend to keep the same so that it could continue to keep consistency with previous (JOB and JOBD parameters). We don’t need to take more time to refresh our information about it when debug. 'RUN_TIME' value could be set to whatever time want the job to run. Schedule the jobs while signed on with a user profile that has *SECOFR authority.

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Document Information

Modified date:
03 June 2021

UID

nas8N1013834

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