Job log pending

The job log pending state has been available for many years. When a job's job log attribute is *PND, no job log is produced. With the release of V5R4 enhancements have been made to both iSeries Navigator and the character-based interface so that you can now control how and under what circumstances the job log for a specific job will be produced.

This new feature is useful when you place the system into a restricted state. When the system goes into a restricted state, subsystems end and a potential of thousands of jobs can end at once. This in turn can create a large burden on the output resources. By preventing the production of these job logs, you can significantly reduce the impact on these resources.

Another example of when you can use this new feature is during a communications failure. Perhaps there are many similar jobs that produce the same job log error messages. You can set the job log to not produce a spool file for all of the jobs. Then if there happens to be a communications failure, you can use the Work with Job Log (WRKJOBLOG) command to determine which logs to print. You can also use the Work with Job Logs (WRKJOBLOG) screen to manage job logs.

Jobs might be in a job log pending state due to the workings of the Power Down System (PWRDWNSYS) command. The iSeries™ Navigator user interface shows the status "Completed - Job log pending" for these jobs. This is a subset of character-based interface status of *OUTQ.

Taking advantage of these enhancements can help you to reduce the number of job logs produced and thereby reduce the contention for resources. This can result in improved system performance.