Admin Alert: When the V5R1 Management Central GUI Won't Start

by Joe Hertvik

IBM's Management Central server that comes with OS/400 V5R1 is used for a number of things, including performance data collection, running commands on other systems, and synchronizing PTFs between iSeries boxes. However, Management Central is configured through the iSeries Operations Navigator's Java GUI, and that GUI sometimes misbehaves and won't start properly, forcing you to troubleshoot it into working properly. Here are a few of the problems I've encountered when the Management Central GUI won't start.

[Note: This article is written for a configuration that includes the Operations Navigator program, which comes with Client Access Express for Windows V5R1 attaching to an OS/400 V5R1 system. Many of these issues may also appear in prior versions of Express client and the OS/400 operating system, but the resolutions to these issues may be different from what is explained here.]

• The Management Central server isn't started. Sometimes, it's the simplest things that trip you up, and not starting the TCP/IP Management Central server is an obvious problem. In OS/400 V5R1, the Management Central servers run in the QSYSWRK subsystem, and the server names are QYPSSRV and QYPSJSVR. You can start the Management Central servers on the green screen by entering the Start TCP/IP Server command, specifying *MGTC as the server name, as follows:

  STRTCPSVR SERVER(*MGTC)
  

  You can also specify that the Management Central servers auto-start whenever TCP/IP starts, by opening the Network-Servers-TCP/IP node, right-clicking the Management Central server entry, selecting Properties from the pop-up menu that appears, and placing a check mark in the Start Server when TCP/IP is started check box.

• The QSECOFR user profile is either disabled or expired. The Management Central QYPSJSVR server was added to OS/400 V5R1 to support Java GUI functionality in OpsNav, but to use the Java GUI requires that the QSECOFR user profile be both enabled and unexpired on the system. If the profile is accidentally or intentionally disabled, the QYPSJSVR server will not start, and you'll have trouble with the GUI. In addition, I've found that the QSECOFR user profile password must also be active, as an expired user profile may also prevent the QYPSJSVR server from starting. So if you're having trouble with Management Central functions in OpsNav, check to see if QSECOFR is disabled or expired. You can check QSECOFR's enabled/disabled status and password expiration date through the green-screen Work with User Profile (WRKUSRPRF) command or through OpsNav's user profile maintenance (accessed through the Users and Groups-All Users node). For expired QSECOFR passwords, I've found that it may not be enough just to reset the password, because the Java GUI seems to check the profile's password expiration date, not the date the password was last changed; my experience has been that you must also sign on to the system as QSECOFR before OS/400 will reset your profile's password expiration date. So if your user profiles are set to expire, say, every 30 days, you may find that the Management Central Java GUI could stop working if the QSECOFR user profile is expired because you haven't changed the QSECOFR password or signed on in a month.
  
  
• Your iSeries system isn't defined as a Management Central Endpoint system. In the OpsNav program, you must define a Management Central central system and all the endpoint systems it services. In my testing I've found that if you're trying to work with the OpsNav Management Central functionality for a particular iSeries or AS/400, you must define it both under My AS/400 Connections and as an endpoint system under the Management Central central system, or the Management Central GUI for that server may fail. To define a new connection under My AS/400 Connections, right-click My AS/400 Connections and select Add Connection from the pop-up menu; then follow the prompts in the My AS/400 Connections dialogue to add the system to OpsNav. To define an endpoint system under your central system, expand the central system node of OpsNav Management Central at the top of the OpsNav tree. Right-click the Management Central-Endpoint Systems node and select New Endpoint System from the pop-up menu. A New Endpoint System dialogue will appear; enter the system name and follow the dialogue. It's important to note that your Endpoint System name must exactly match the AS/400 Connection name under My AS/400 Connections or you may have trouble with the Management Central Java GUI for that system.

Once you have these items configured correctly and the OS/400 Management Central server is started, you should to be able to use the OpsNav Management Central Java GUI to configure and manipulate items on your iSeries or AS/400. While these aren't the only problems that can stop you from using the Management Central server in OpsNav, they are important to remember as you troubleshoot Management Central problems.

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