Startup Process Flow

The Startup Process Flow optionally executes as iSM starts. The name of the process flow is entered in the Recovery area of the console. If named and present, the process flow is executed by the server just prior to the installation of system components. For example, if SNMP did not begin, then the process flow itself will not be recorded in the activity logs.

If the process flow ends successfully, the server continues with its startup process. If the process does not end successfully (for example, a fail service is encountered), the server does not start.

The process flow is designed to enable the server to verify the availability of required resources. For example, an SQL service in the process flow may perform a simple select against the Business Activity Monitor (BAM) tables by accessing the jdbc/BAMDBProvider. If the select fails, it can be assumed that the BAM database is not available, and the process flow issues a fail. This would prevent processing if BAM, deemed by the application designer to be a critical resource, is not available. Similarly, if an application required the transfer of data from an Oracle to a DB2 database, the startup process flow could determine that both are available before allowing the server to start. Startup criteria are at the discretion of the application designer.

Once started, the server manages errors and recovery normally.

You cannot control the server from this process flow. For example, you cannot use the control service to start channels because the server has not yet been sufficiently initialized for channels to properly start. Other facilities, including the autostart script, can be used for this purpose.

The following image shows the Recovery pane.

On entry, the input document to the process flow is shown below:

<startup version=currentversion time=timestamp/>

where:

currentversion

Is the server version number, such as 6.1.6.

timestamp

Is a standard RFC 3339 (ISO 8601) timestamp.

The output document is ignored.

The startup parameter -r causes iSM to start without calling the startup exit. This allows a buggy startup exit to be bypassed so that iWay tools can be used to correct any problems.

Note: This is available under the batch (manual) startup mode. Users are advised to avoid starting as a service until the startup exit is known to be functioning properly.