Why a second ASP for journal receivers?

[Former Member]

I need some assistance--quickly!

Long ago, I was the Basis person when we first established our SAP system. At that time, we set up a second ASP for use in managing the journal receivers. We had this second ASP on the production machine and on the development machine. We developed an in-house process to automatically save the completed journal receivers off to tape and delete them. All of this was working well.

I moved on to a different position and there was a new Basis person for about four years. During that time, the development system was moved to a new machine. Additionally, all of the SAP systems were upgraded from version 4.0B to version 4.7x110.

Now, that person is no longer with the company and I have stepped back into the Basis position.

I have found that the production system still has the second ASP. The journal receivers, although named unconventionally, can still be managed using the process developed long ago.

The development machine is another matter. It doesn't have a secondary ASP. As such, the journal receivers are immediately deleted as soon as they are detached by a system job, QDBSRV03. I don't have the option to save them before they are deleted!

Compounding the issue, we are soon to migrate both machines to a new 520 with LPARS that were carved out by an IBMer. The LPARS do not have secondary ASPs! Although I am not sure, I do not believe that the machine has enough disks to create these additional ASPs. I have been told that the sizing for the machine (ordered and delivered before I stepped back into the Basis position) was "blessed by SAP".

Am I correct in saying that if we restore all of the journal receivers to their respective system ASPs (ASP01) on the new machine LPARS, the system job will delete them as soon as they are detached before I have the option to save them to tape?

Or, is there a way to disable the automatic deletion of the journal receivers?

I need this information quickly because the migration is moving ahead at full speed. If this is a show-stopper, I need to let management know.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Robert,

Allowing the journal receivers to reside on the same ASP has been an option for a few years now. People disagree about the impact on performance I personally do not believe there is any impact. A production system must have the journals backed up but my company does not retain the journal receivers on our development or QA systems. We have those receivers set to be system managed and delete when detached. These systems are backed up daily and that is sufficient.

When you restore the system to the new box, it is likely that the system will create a journal receiver in the production database because it must have the journal active. Once the restore is done and the old journal receiver library is on the system, you need to create a receiver there then do a change journal to attach the receiver over in it’s own library.

Hope this helps,

Pat

[Former Member]

Seems there is an option on the CHGJRN command, DTLRCV that can be set to *NO. This allows the user to manage the receivers.

Robert

[Former Member]

Hi Robert,

you are exactly correct. But, you should definetely keep the backup to tape on the PRD machine and perhaps should think on remote journaling in order to be able to recover "up to the last minute" just in case. It is always bad, when you are missing 2h or so :-(((

Regards

Volker Gueldenpfennig

[Former Member]

Hi, Volker

The tape backup is what we do. Remote journaling has been mentioned but will have to be a management decision.

If you remember, years ago you stayed up one night and helped me restore our PRD system along with recovering as much as we could from the journal receivers. We were able to recover acceptably from the crisis of failed hardware.

I'll never forget how patient you were with guiding and teaching me and how you were willing to stay as long as possible to ensure we were back to a stable environment.

If no one has told you recently:

Thanks for all of your hard work and dedication to helping others!

Robert