How to Confront Your IBM i Message Queues

All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.© HelpSystems LLC. All rights reserved.
Learn to manage QSYSOPR messages without losing your mind
How to Confront Your IBM i
Message Queues

HelpSystems LLC. All rights reserved.
Your Hosts
Chuck Losinski
Director of Automation Technology
HelpSystems
Broadcasting live from Eden Prairie, Minnesota USA
Sara Williams
Research Technical Consultant
HelpSystems

• WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
• NUTS AND BOLTS (MESSAGE DETAILS)
• FUN WITH MESSAGES (MESSAGE AND “Q” COMMANDS)
• AUTOMATE (REPLY LIST ENTRIES)
• BUILD YOUR OWN (MESSAGE PROGRAMMING)
AGENDA

Messages can be critical to your system and your applications.
They give you a timestamp for jobs starting and ending and tell you
when:
For example: might this be important to know?
SO WHAT? IT’S JUST A MESSAGE QUEUE
• A program fails
• You have hardware issues
• You maxed out a file
– …and asked you what to do about it
• You need to load paper or
change a form
• You have communication issues

• Message ID
• Severity 00-99
• Type – Info or Inquiry
• Date/Time
• Text – Usually helpful
• Reply Values – Predefined
PARTS OF A MESSAGE
Note: Press F1 on a message for additional information. Press
F9 for message details.

• Pass information from:
– The operating system
– A program
– A user
• Examples:
– Job completed normally
– Device PRT03 no longer communicating
– Password not correct for user profile
– But also: disk failure, storage threshold exceeded! Critical
not to miss!
INFORMATIONAL MESSAGES

• Messages that require a response from:
– The system
– A program
– A user
• Examples:
– Active file found on this volume (C I)
– Load next tape volume on device
TAP01 (C G)
– End of forms on PRT03 (C H I PAGE 1-9999999)
INQUIRY MESSAGES

• Read the message text and make sure you select the
appropriate reply
• Examples:
– C = (C) Cancel or (C) Continue
– I = (I) Ignore
– G = (G) Go or (G) Get-In
– R = (R) Retry
– D = (D) Dump
MESSAGE REPLIES

• Different types of message queues:
– System operator message queue
QSYSOPR and QSYSMSG
– User message queue
Associated with your user profile
– Workstation message queue
Associated with your session
MESSAGE QUEUES
QSYSOPR User Queue Workstation
System
Messages
User
Messages
Session
Messages

DSPMSG – USER MESSAGE QUEUE

DSPMSG – SYSTEM MESSAGE QUEUE

1. Message files: system vs. application
2. Message details: severity, replies, etc.
3. Message queue contents and options
LIVE DEMO

• Regular
– Send to a user’s message queue
– Address to a user profile
– SNDMSG
• Break
– Interrupt a user’s session
– Address to their workstation
– SNDBRKMSG
• GO CMDMSG for other message commands
SENDING MESSAGES

SNDMSG, F10

SNDBRKMSG

No command needed, message interrupts session
MESSAGE BREAKS TO YOUR SCREEN

• You can change your message queue so that important
messages break to your screen automatically
• Messages break only for the first session you sign on to
• Can use a severity filter
• Use the command
– CHGMSGQ
CHANGING YOUR MESSAGE QUEUE

CHGMSGQ, F4
Messages with a severity of 60 or higher will break to
the screen when using the severity filter.

1. Sending messages
2. Receiving messages
3. Break messages
LIVE DEMO

• Manually
– Operator required
• Automatically
– System reply list
ANSWERING INQUIRY MESSAGES

Manually:
• Some messages require that you take some action or
investigate the problem before answering the message
OPERATOR REQUIRED

Automatically:
• The system can handle some messages automatically
• The system reply list will answer messages using a default
answer as soon as the message arrives on the message
queue
– The message data must match the comparison data
• Job generating message must have…
– Job attribute INQMSGRPY(*SYSRPYL)
SYSTEM REPLY LIST

WRKRPYLE
When a generic message ID is listed, all messages in
that range use the same reply, for example: RPG0000.

1. Build an automatic reply
2. Using comparison data
3. How would you test this?
LIVE DEMO

Batch message commands:
• SNDPGMMSG sends a message to a program call stack
• SNDUSRMSG sends to a message queue and optionally
can receive a reply to that message (inquiry message!)
• RCVMSG receives a message from a message previously
sent to a message queue
• SNDRPY replies to a message previously sent
to a message queue
MESSAGE PROGRAMMING

SNDPGMMSG
NOTE: These are batch only commands.

RCVMSG
The “key” is the message key field.

RCVMSG (cont.)
Receive the message information into CL variables.

SNDRPY
Notice the message key field.

REPLY INTERCEPTION EXIT POINT
Register your program on the reply interception exit point.

1. A simple message interception program
2. Registering the message program
3. Generating test messages with a CL program
LIVE DEMO

• Messages are a big deal and should not be ignored
– Your users are depending on you!
• Reply list entries will get you started
• Automation is the key
– Consider a commercial message management package
– Specifically designed for message handling and escalation
– Robot solution
QUESTIONS?

Thank you for attending!
Contact Information
Website:
www.helpsystems.com/robot
Telephone:
800-328-1000 sales
+1 952-933-0609 support
Presenters:
chuck.losinski@helpsystems.com
sara.williams@helpsystems.com
Chuck Losinski
Director of Automation Technology
HelpSystems
Sara Williams
Research Technical Consultant
HelpSystems

How to Confront Your IBM i Message Queues

More Related Content

Similar to How to Confront Your IBM i Message Queues

More from HelpSystems

Recently uploaded

How to Confront Your IBM i Message Queues