As an administrator in a distributed relational database you might have to operate a remote iSeries™ server.
For example, you might have to start or stop a remote server. The iSeries server provides options that help you ensure that a remote server is operating when it needs to be. Of course, the simplest way to ensure that a remote server is operating is to allow the remote location to power on their server to meet the distributed relational database requirements. But, this is not always possible. You can set up an automatic power-on and power-off schedule or enable a remote power on to a remote server.
The server provides several ways to do this either in real time or at previously scheduled times. More often, you might need to perform certain tasks on a remote server as it is operating. The three primary ways that you can do this is by using display station pass-through, the Submit Remote Command (SBMRMTCMD) command, or stored procedures.
The Submit Remote Command (SBMRMTCMD) command submits a CL command using Distributed Data Management (DDM) support to run on the application server (AS). You first need to create a DDM file. The remote location information of the DDM file is used to determine the communications line to be used. Thus, it identifies the AS that is to receive the submitted command. The remote file associated with the DDM file is not involved when the DDM file is used for submitting commands to run on the AS.
The Submit Remote Command (SBMRMTCMD) command can submit any CL command that can run in both the batch environment and through the QCAEXEC system program; that is, the command has values of *BPGM and *EXEC specified for the ALLOW attribute. You can display the ALLOW attributes by using the Display Command (DSPCMD) command.
The primary purpose of the Submit Remote Command (SBMRMTCMD) command is to allow an application requester (AR) user or program to perform file management operations and file authorization activities on objects located on an AS. A secondary purpose of this command is to allow a user to perform nonfile operations (such as creating a message queue) or to submit user-written commands to run on the AS. The CMD parameter allows you to specify a character string of up to 2000 characters that represents a command to be run on the AS.
You must have the proper authority on the AS for the CL command being submitted and for the objects that the command is to operate on. If the AR user has the correct authority to do so (as determined in an AS user profile), the following actions are examples of what can be performed on remote files using the Submit Remote Command (SBMRMTCMD) command:
Although the command can be used to do many things with tables or other objects on the remote server, using this command for some tasks is not as efficient as other methods on the iSeries server. For example, you can use this command to display the file descriptions or field attributes of remote files, or to dump files or other objects, but the output remains at the AS. To display remote file descriptions and field attributes at the AR, a better method is to use the Display File Description (DSPFD) and Display File Field Description (DSPFFD) commands with SYSTEM(*RMT) specified, and specify the names of the DDM files associated with the remote files.
See the Distributed data management topic for lists of CL commands you can submit and restrictions for the use of these commands. In addition, see Control DDM conversations for information about how DDM shares conversations.