IBM Support

QMGTOOLS: Temp Storage Menu

Troubleshooting


Problem

This document describes the Temp Storage Menu and options associated with it.

Resolving The Problem


Installing and updating QMGTOOLS  -  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/684977

To access the Temp Storage menu from the Must Gather Data Collector menu  -
GO QMGTOOLS/MG   =>  Internals  =>  Storage Management Menu  =>  Temporary Storage Menu

You can also access the Temp Storage Menu directly  -  GO QMGTOOLS/TMPSTG


The Temp Storage menu looks like this.  Descriptions of the options will follow after the sample screen capture.

image-20240723124542-1

Temporary storage SYSSNAP collection

This option can be used to collect data for upload to IBM that is useful in diagnosing temporary storage growth issues.  It can also be run from the command line using QMGTOOLS/TSTGSNAP.  This tool always collects the following SYSSNAP data:
  • Licensed Internal Code log                        
  • History log                                       
  • Temporary storage collection (bucket data, etc.)  
  •  Collection Services data                         
Be sure to set the date range appropriately so it corresponds to the storage growth.

image-20220521141842-7

Specify either the number of previous days to collect, or use *DATE to specify a specific date range.
image-20220521142252-8
After specifying an appropriate date range that covers the temporary storage growth, you can select whether to include default SYSSNAP data (such as PTFs, system values, TCP information, etc.).  If this is the first collection for the current temporary storage issue, leave the default option as 'Y'.  Otherwise, if you had already sent a recent SYSSNAP with default data, then you can save collection time and reduce the size of the upload by changing the default option to 'N'. 
A large number of temporary storage issues are related to query/SQL, so we recommend leaving the Collect SQL data option set to 'Y'.
If you know or suspect that the temporary storage growth is due to one particular job, you can change the Collect active dump parameter to 'Y' and get fields for entering the specific job name.
image-20220521144219-11
There are additional parameters available via F9 or F10 that are normally not needed, but may be requested by your IBM i Software Support professional.
image-20220521144746-12


Temporary storage summary

Current auxiliary storage and temporary storage data is collected and used to spool a summary report showing the largest temporary storage buckets and groups.  Values in the report will be either millions of bytes (M) or billions of bytes (G).  This tool can also be run from the command line using QMGTOOLS/DSPTSTGSUM.
Sample report:
image-20250507093129-1
image-20250507093309-2
image-20250507093439-3


List temp storage and SQL info for active jobs

This option generates a report which lists temporary storage currently used by active jobs.  All jobs can listed, or subset to just the jobs that have used SQL, or even just those actively running SQL, and then sorted by temporary storage or CPU usage.  This tool can also be run from the command line using QMGTOOLS/DSPAJTSTG.
image-20240723125433-2
Sample report:
image-20240723130746-3


List ended jobs in QHST by temp storage
 
The history log is queried for jobs that have ended and they can be sorted by either peak temporary storage, or by CPU seconds used.  This can useful in determining if a temporary storage spike was caused by a single job, after the job ended and the storage returned to normal.  This tool can also be run from the command line using QMGTOOLS/DSPLOGTSTG.                                                    
image-20220521151605-17
Set the beginning date appropriately to capture when the storage spike occurred.  By default the jobs will be sorted by the peak temporary storage used, but you can also select to sort by the number of CPU seconds used.
Partial sample report:
image-20220521153653-18

Compare temp storage PTFs from IBM
 
This option will download the list of known temporary storage fixes from document https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/706651 and compare to the PTFs applied to this system.  This tool can also be run from the command line using QMGTOOLS/CMPPTF PTFTYPE(*TMPPTF).

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Document Information

Modified date:
08 September 2025

UID

nas8N1020142

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