Sometimes, I’ve found myself needing to check the last time a system has done an IPL. That information can be obtained a few ways – by checking the start date and time of the SCPF job, or by looking at the QCTL subsystem. This doesn’t necessarily show you the full details though.
IBM has a neat little program, which gives you the last time the system performed an IPL, along with how long each step of the IPL took. This information is produced in a relatively small spool file. It can be a little intimidating to look at but is relatively straightforward. This data can be beneficial for maintenance planning, or after an abnormal system shutdown.
To generate the report, enter the following on the command line:
CALL PGM(QWCCRTEC)
The spool file produced by the QWCCRTEC program is called QPSRVDMP. The first 85 characters are a hexadecimal presentation of the data that we are looking for. Just to the right of that, starting at column 90, are the details are we are after. In this example, you can see when the power down of the system began – as indicated by ‘XPF PWRDWN’, as well as when the power down was completed, ‘End PWRDWN’.
Further along, we can see all the details of our last IPL on this system. The beginning of the IPL is marked with ‘XPF IPL’, and the end is marked with ‘End of IPL’. Each step of the IPL is listed in between, using the same C6xx and C9xx status codes that you would find on an HMC, front operations panel, or LAN Console during the IPL process. These codes can be referenced on IBM’s reference codes site. Note that the exact link to this reference material will vary depending on your Power System model.
From this report, we can tell that the last IPL on this system was rather quick, with a power down at 11:01 and the IPL finishing at almost 11:05.
If you want to find the type of IPL performed (unattended, attended, after abnormal system end), you can find that information in the system log. Rather than scroll through several pages of the system log, I’ve found a simple SQL query will do the trick.
SELECT MESSAGE_TIMESTAMP,MESSAGE_ID, MESSAGE_TEXT
FROM TABLE(QSYS2.HISTORY_LOG_INFO(‘2022-09-11-11.00.00.000000’,
‘2022-09-11-11.30.00.000000’))
WHERE MESSAGE_ID IN (‘CPF0903′,’CPF0905′,’CPF0997′,’CPF0998’)
More from this month:
Obtaining Your Last IPL Details
Five Costly Mistakes that IBM i
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