Change the state of local journals

Local journals can be in one of two states, active or standby. When the journal state of a local journal is active, journal entries are allowed to be deposited to the journal receiver.

To put a journal in standby state use the Change Journal (CHGJRN) command. You can also use iSeries™ Navigator or the CHGJRN command to change the state of a journal back to active.

Parent topic: Manage journals
Related concepts
iSeries Navigator versus the character-based interface for journaling objects
File identifier considerations for working with integrated file system entries
Related reference
Change Journal State (QjoChangeJournalState) API
Change Journal (CHGJRN) command
Related information
Journal entry information finder

Standby state

Journal standby state is a separately purchased feature that prevents most journal entries from being entered into the journal. Standby state is option 42 of the i5/OS® operating system. You can start or stop journaling while the journal is in standby. However, while a journal is in standby state, you cannot use explicit commitment control. Also, databases files that have referential integrity constraints or data links defined cannot be used when a journal is in standby state. The operating system needs to use commitment control for these functions. However, referential integrity constraints can be used in standby state if RESTRICT is specified on the ON UPDATE or ON DELETE attribute for the constraint.

An example of when you might want to put a journal on standby state is if the journal is on a backup system. By having the journal in standby state, a switchover to the target system can be accomplished more quickly because all objects on the backup system can be journaled thus allowing the switchover processing to skip the costly step of starting journaling for all objects. At the same time though, the backup system is not incurring the overhead of journaling because most journal entries are not deposited when the journal is in standby state.

If there is an attempt to deposit a journal entry when the journal is in standby state, no entry is deposited, but no error messages are sent to the application. Journal codes 'J' and entry types 'SI' and 'SX' are deposited when the local journal is put into and out of standby. Furthermore, there are some journal entries that will be deposited in a journal, even though the journal state is standby. Use the Journal entry information finder to see if a journal entry is still deposited even though the journal in standby state.

Active state

When a local journal is created, the journal state of that journal is *ACTIVE. This means that journal entries can be deposited to the local journal. If a local journal is in standby state, journal entries with journal code 'J' and entry type 'LA' are deposited when the local journal is activated.

If a local journal has been put in standby state, activate it by doing the following:

  1. In the iSeries Navigator window, expand the system you want to use.
  2. Expand Databases.
  3. Expand the database you want to work with and Schemas.
  4. Click the Schema that contains the journal you want to activate.
  5. Right-click the journal, and select Properties.
  6. On the Journal Properties dialog box select Activate journal

You can also use the Change Journal State (QjoChangeJournalState) API or Change Journal (CHGJRN) command to activate the local journal.