Fixing Damaged Data Queues

Hey, David:

Is there any way to fix a damaged data queue? Or is there a command to retrieve a data queue's attributes? Our UPS failed in the middle of the day and quite a few data queues were damaged. I ended up restoring them from an offsite backup. They seem to be okay now, but the delay was frustrating.

--Dale

IBM doesn't supply a command to recover damaged data queues. Having experienced damaged data queues myself, I understand the frustration. You cannot duplicate them from another library, and if you don't have a record of how they were created you are out of luck.

There are several ways to approach this problem. One of the simplest is to test for the existence of the data queue in your programs; if it is not found, call a CL to recreate the missing data queue. If a data queue becomes damaged, all you have to do is delete it and your programs will recover themselves.

Unfortunately, you may not know how all of your data queues were created, and with purchased software, you may not have the ability to call a program to recreate missing data queues. In these cases, you can use the retrieve data queue description (QMHQRDQD) API. To make it easier to use the API to recreate data queues, I wrote a Create Duplicate Data Queue (CRTDUPDTAQ) command.

The CRTDUPDTAQ command calls the QMHQRDQD API to retrieve information about an existing data queue and uses that information to create a new data queue with identical attributes. That program is written in RPG IV, and you can view the dtaq.irp source on the Source Forge Web site.

With the CRTDUPDTAQ command, you rename the damaged data queue and specify the renamed data queue for the DTAQ and the original data queue name as the NEWDTAQ. The resulting data queue will be an undamaged duplicate of the original.

You can download the CRTDUPDTAQ command and its associated programs and service programs as part of the iSeries-toolkit. The iSeries-toolkit is a collection of free iSeries utilities. Just follow the current release link on the iSeries-toolkit home page. Installation instructions are available on the documentation page.

--David

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