Manage active and prepared transactions

Use this task to manage active and prepared transactions that might need administrator action.

Under normal circumstances, transactions should run and complete (commit or roll back) automatically, without the need for intervention. However, in some circumstances, we might have to resolve a transaction manually. For example, you might want to roll back a transaction that has become stuck polling a resource manager that you know will not become available again within the required timeframe.

(zos) Under normal circumstances, every effort is made to finish a transaction. However, due to RRS and native contexts finishing, finishing the transaction might not be possible. In this case, the transaction is marked rollback_only so that it rolls back at the next available window. In other situations, we might have to finish a transaction manually. For example, you might want to finish a transaction that has become stuck polling a resource manager that you know will not become available again within the required timeframe.

If we choose to complete a transaction on an application server, it is recorded as having completed in the transaction service logs for that server, so will not be eligible for recovery during server start up. If we complete a transaction, you are responsible for cleaning up any in-doubt transactions on the resource managers affected.

We can use the console to display a snapshot of all the transactions in an application server that are in the following states:

Manual transactions

Transactions awaiting administrative completion. For each transaction, the local ID or global ID is displayed. We can choose to display information on each resource (specifically, which resource manager it is associated with) associated with the transaction. We can also choose to commit or roll back transactions in this state.

Retry transactions

Transactions with some resources being retried. For each transaction, the local ID or global ID is displayed, and whether the transaction is committing or rolling back. We can choose to display information on each resource (specifically, which resource manager it is associated with) associated with the transaction. We can also choose to finish (stop retrying) transactions in this state.

Heuristic transactions

Transactions that have completed heuristically. For each transaction, the local ID or global ID and the heuristic outcome is displayed. We can choose to display information on each resource (specifically, which resource manager it is associated with) associated with the transaction. We can also choose to clear the transaction from the list.

Imported prepared transactions

Transactions that have been imported and prepared but not yet committed. For each transaction, the local ID or global ID is displayed. We can choose to display information on each resource (specifically, which resource manager it is associated with) associated with the transaction. We can also choose to commit or roll back transactions in this state.

To manage the active and prepared transactions for an application server, use the console to complete the following steps:

1. Display the Transaction Service runtime page for application server:

   1. In the navigation pane, click Servers > Server Types > WebSphere application servers.

   2. In the content pane, click the name of the application server.

   3. In the content pane, click the Runtime tab.

   4. Under Additional Properties, click Transaction Service.
   The page displays values for the runtime properties of the transaction service, including the number of transactions in the active and prepared states.

2. To display a snapshot of the transactions in a specific state, click Review in the field label.

3. Optional: To display information about the resources associated with a transaction, click the name of the transaction.

4. Optional: To act on a transaction, select the check box provided on the entry for the transaction, then click one of the buttons provided. Alternatively, to act on all transactions, select the check box in the header of the transactions table, then click a button.

Subtopics

• Manage active and prepared transactions by
  We can use wsadmin scripting to manage active and prepared transactions that might need administrator action.

Related tasks

Manage active and prepared transactions by

Configure transaction properties for an application server

Related information:

Transactions needing manual completion

Transactions retrying resources

Transactions with heuristic outcome

Transactions imported and prepared