Starting with Showcase Server version 7.10 (and Higher) you may have noticed a new message to end the QSQSRVR pre-start job before applying the patch. The QSQSRVR pre-start jobs mainly serve SQL requests from any application.
IBM ships the QSQSRVR pre-start job entry with a maximum number of uses of 200. This means that one QSQSRVR job will accept 200 SQL requests before ending. Any object that this job uses during any of those requests may remain allocated until the job ends. If the ShowCase server is shut down to apply a patch or back up the library, the last QSQSRVR job that any ShowCase job used will stay active (and keep its lock on certain ShowCase files, such as the SCCONNECT user space).
This prevents the Showcase patch from completing, even though the user receives a message stating that the job has ended successfully. Unfortunately, the update process isn't able to finish binding the service programs, and the ShowCase server will not start. There's a quick way to avoid this: change the QSQSRVR job maximum number of uses to 1. This does NOT change the maximum number of jobs, only the maximum number of uses for each job. At an iSeries 5250 emulation ("green screen") session, type the following commands in order:
At an iSeries 5250 emulation ("green screen") session, type the following commands in order:
ENDPJ SBS(QSYSWRK) PGM(QSQSRVR)
CHGPJE SBSD(QSYSWRK) PGM(QSYS/QSQSRVR) MAXUSE(1)
STRPJ SBS(QSYSWRK) PGM(QSQSRVR)
After the third command, you may receive a message 'Start Prestart Jobs command not allowed now'. This is normal and can be ignored.
This process shouldn't affect the way any application uses QSQSRVR jobs, or affect system performance in a negative way. However, it will allow those jobs to release locks much more quickly. For that reason, ShowCase is now recommending this change for customers using all versions of ShowCase on an iSeries server.
Ref#: 1479277
