Troubleshoot the iSeries connection

Each ODBC connection communicates with one System i database program. This program is referred to as the host server program.

The name of the Database Server program used with TCP/IP is QZDASOINIT. It is normally located in subsystem QUSRWRK, however it can be set up differently by the system administrator.

Under normal conditions, the program is evoked transparently, and the user is not required to take action except to verify that the proper subsystems and communication protocols are running. See the Host server administration for details on administration of host server jobs.

The most common indication of a connection failure is an error message from the ODBC driver mentioning a communications link failure.

If ODBC is unable to connect to the iSeries host, perform the following troubleshooting tasks:

• Checking the server status
  Use the iSeries Access for Windows CWBPING command.

• Verifying that subsystems are active
  TCP/IP-connected iSeries Access ODBC jobs (QZDASOINIT) will run in the QUSRWRK subsystem. Verify that this subsystem is running.

• Verifying that prestart jobs are running
  IBM^® ships the QSERVER/QUSRWRK subsystems to use prestart jobs to improve performance at job initialization and startup. If not active, these prestart jobs can impact an iSeries connection.

• Additional TCP/IP considerations
  Use NETSTAT, STRTCP, and STRHOSTSVR to verify and start TCP/IP functions when troubleshooting an iSeries connection.

Parent topic:

Related concepts
Host server administration