Controlling inactive jobs and workstations

 

You can control the amount of time the workstation can remain inactive before the subsystem sends a message (called time-out) by specifying a time interval in the Time-out interval for inactive jobs (QINACTITV) system value. Controlling inactive jobs provides security so that users do not leave signed on displays inactive.

 

How the system determines a workstation is inactive

The subsystem determines that a workstation is inactive if all of the following are true:

• The job has not processed any additional transactions during the timer interval.

  A transaction is defined as any operator interaction, like scrolling, pressing enter, pressing function keys, and so on. Typing at the workstation without pressing enter is not considered a transaction. If a job at the workstation does not meet the inactive criteria, the job is considered active.

• The job status is display wait.

• The job is not disconnected.

• The job status has not changed.

• The subsystem in which the job is running is not in the restricted state.

 

Handling inactive jobs

To handle an inactive job found on the system, use the When a job reaches time-out (QINACTMSGQ) system value. To determine the processing options choose from the following:

• Set the QINACTMSGQ system value to a message queue name.

  If you specify a message queue name for the QINACTMSGQ system value, a user or program can monitor the message queue and take whatever action is needed, such as ending a job.

  If a workstation with a secondary job pair is inactive, the system sends two messages (one of each of the secondary job pairs) to the message queue. The user or program can then use either the ENDJOB command against one or both secondary jobs, or the DSCJOB command against the active job at the display.

• Set the QINACTMSGQ system value to *DSCJOB.

  If you specify *DSCJOB for the QINACTMSGQ system value, the system disconnects all jobs at the workstation. The system sends a message that indicates that all jobs at the workstation have disconnected from QSYSOPR or the configured message queue. (A configured message queue is the message queue specified in the MSGQ parameter of the display device description. By default it is QSYS or QSYSOPR.) If the interactive job does not support disconnecting the job (for example, TELNET sessions that use QPADEVxxxx device descriptions), the job ends instead.

  A message continues to be sent for each interval that the job is inactive.

• Set the system value QINACTMSGQ to *ENDJOB.

  If you specify *ENDJOB for the QINACTMSGQ system value, the system ends all of the jobs at the workstation. The system sends a message that indicates that all jobs at the workstation have ended to QSYSOPR or the configured message queue.

  Source pass-through jobs, client VTM (virtual terminal manager) jobs, and 3270 device emulation jobs are excluded from the time-out because they always appear inactive. System/36 environment MRT jobs are also excluded since they appear as batch jobs.

 

Parent topic:

Managing interactive jobs