How to overcome EventText field limit of 254 character (NonStopEventEMS record)

[Igor_Silc]

Hello,

We would like to have a threshold checking on NonStop EMS messages with ZEMS_TKN_TEXT field larger than 254 characters. Unfortunately Prognosis takes only first 254 characters. How to check on EMS TEXT (ZEMS_TKN_TEXT field) that has longest than 254 characters? Can this limit of 254 characters be changed?

Please advise!

Regards,

Igor

[David_Sun]

Hi @Igor_Silc 

The EventText field is defined in the record definition file as 254 characters maximum.   You might try to open the defsrec file in the Prognosis subvol and change the length of this field (make a backup of this file first!), then save it and restart Prognosis and check if it increases the limit. If it does not work as expected, this will require Professional Service work. 

Hope this helps.

Thanks

David

[Igor_Silc]

Thank you David for the hint!

Will try!

Igor

[Scott_Clement]

Hi @Igor_Silc ,

I'd also add a couple of caveats that go hand-in-hand with altering a record definition yourself:

a) You may need to re-implement that change any time you apply a patch or upgrade. Patching can overwrite this file,  upgrading definitely will.

b) If you have multiple Prognosis nodes in your environment, the change needs to be replicated on all of them. The record definitions between systems need to be an exact match or it breaks compatability for that record (you won't be able to view or request it from a Prognosis managing node for example).

Regards,

Scott

[Igor_Silc]

Thank you Scott for additional info!

At first I would just like to test it on our test NonStop system. If test will be successful, after that I will change also production NonStop nodes.

Do I need to change anything on Management Server (Windows server)? And where?

[Igor_Silc]

Hi David,

DEFSREC file is not so easy to edit!

This file has file code 101, so I assumed I could edit it with TEDIT or EDIT. But it's just not possible since normal edit 101 files cannot have more than 99999 records. DEFSREC has 475656 records.

So I download it to PC, edit it, and tried to upload it back, the problem is that SFTP prohibit to write to edit file more than 99999 records (transfer type was text mode). I tried with binary, tied to copy it to 101 file, etc..., but I was just unable to successfully create a complete DEFSREC 101 file. Do you have any hint how can I edit DEFSREC file?

As I can see, DEFSREC file was created from different sources from OSS:

!**** From defsrec file: automation/automation.defsrec ****
...

!**** From defsrec file: infrastructure/common/db2/db2.defsrec ****
!**** From defsrec file: infrastructure/common/jvm/jvm.defsrec ****
etc....

I can see that the NonStopEventEms records come from:

!**** From defsrec file: infrastructure/nonstop/ems/ems.defsrec ****

Can this be somehow helpful? Can I edit "infrastructure/nonstop/ems/ems.defsrec" file and maybe recreate DEFSREC file in guardian?

[Igor_Silc]

With FTPS (FTP over SSL) I was able to use text mode file transfer and upload a complete and modified DEFSREC file.

Sorry for bothering you about this!

I restarted Prognosis with new DEFSREC, but the text is still truncated at 254 character
Could it be a display problem?

Or is there anything else?

How can I check - which guardian file keeps this EMS records?

[David_Sun]

Hi @Igor_Silc 

Thank you for the update. Yes when loading large file onto the server sometimes we have to increase the file extent.

Which display you used to show the EMS record? Is that the standard display or a custom display? I'd suggest to create a new display to test with. If it still does not show the full length please log a support case, we will investigate it.  

Regards

David

[Igor_Silc]

Hi David,

thank you for the answer!

Edit file (code 101) have some limitation with internal structure and by design, one of them is limit of 99999 records. If you would like to edit it with EDIT or TEDIT you just have to follow structure rules.

Regarding EMS and our problem: I am using our own display showing all the fields and records from NonStopEventEms prognosis table. To see a whole TextEms field I just put to wrap the text:

[Igor_Silc]

Hi David,

when you said, I have to restart Prognosis... is "warm" start sufficient, or do I need to do a "cold" restart?

I did a normal "warm" restart thru TACL: "Run stopprg" & "run startprg".

Regards,

Igor