13.7 Setting Up and Starting Queues
You must create queues in order for users to submit jobs; you
must start the queues so that jobs can begin processing. To
set up and start queues, perform the following tasks, in order:
Task
For More
Information
Section 12.4
If your configuration includes output queues, set up output
devices and create a command procedure to set up the
devices on reboot.
Section 13.7.1
If you plan to use any queue options, such as forms and
characteristics and banner pages, determine the qualifiers
needed to specify those options. In addition, define any
forms and characteristics you will use before you create
queues.
Section 13.8
Create and start queues. Section 13.7.2
Create a command procedure to perform the necessary
setup tasks each time your system reboots.
13.7.1 Setting Up Output Devices
Before creating output queues, you must set up the devices to
which the queues will direct output.
How to Perform This Task
1. Install any printers, plotters, and other output devices to
which your users will have access. For information, see
the documentation provided with the hardware.
2. If you will use LAT printers, create logical LAT ports.
You must create a logical LAT port on each service node
to which a LAT printer is to be available, and associate
the logical port with a physical port or service on the ter-
minal server node. To do so, use the LATCP commands
CREATE PORT and SET PORT. For more information,
see Section 24.5.2.
3. Set device characteristics for line printers and printers
attached to terminal ports. To do so, use a series of SET
commands. For more information, see Section 7.6.1. In
step 6, you will create a command procedure to set up
your devices each time the system reboots. The com-
mands you enter to set device characteristics must be
included in this command procedure.
4. Spool printers. If you use LAT printers, or if you run
applications that write output directly to a printer, you
should spool your printers. For more information on
spooled printers, see Section 13.6.7.
To spool a printer, use the SET DEVICE/SPOOLED com-
mand, as explained in Section 7.6.2.1.
5. Create a command procedure to set up your device char-
acteristics and spool printers each time the system reboots.
The commands you entered in steps 3 and 4 must be in-
cluded in the command procedure. (The commands you
entered to set up logical ports in step 2 should be included
in your site-specific LAT startup command procedure
SYS$MANAGER:LAT$SYSTARTUP.COM.)
If your configuration is simple, you can add the com-
mands to SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM. If your configu-
ration requires a large number of commands, create a
separate command procedure (for example, DEVICE_
SETUP.COM) and execute it from SYSTARTUP_
VMS.COM.
In the command procedure, a SET TERMINAL com-
mand must precede a SET DEVICE/SPOOLED command
for the same output device.
Example
$ SET PRINTER/TAB/PAGE=66/WIDTH=132/LOWER/FF/NOCR -
_$ /FALLBACK/NOWRAP/NOTAB LPA0:
$ SET TERMINAL/SPEED=9600/PAGE=100/WIDTH=200/DEVICE=LN03/NOBROADCAST -
_$ /NOECHO/HARDCOPY/NOTYPE_AHEAD/NOFORM/NOWRAP/PASTHRU/PERMANENT LTA3331:
$ SET DEVICE/SPOOLED=(LPA0,SYS$SYSDEVICE) LPA0:
$ SET DEVICE/SPOOLED=(LN03_1,SYS$SYSDEVICE) LTA3331:
13.7.2 Creating and Starting Queues
Create execution queues before you create generic queues.
You can start a queue either at the time you create the queue
or later. For detailed instructions on creating and starting
queues, see the following sections.
Task
For More
Information
13.7.2.1 Autostart Execution Queues
To create an autostart execution queue, specify the
/AUTOSTART_ON qualifier with the INITIALIZE/QUEUE
command.
For... Use This Command...
You can omit the /START qualifier, and activate the queue
later using the START/QUEUE command. For more infor-
mation, see the INITIALIZE/QUEUE and START/QUEUE
commands in the OpenVMS DCL Dictionary .
Enabling Autostart to Start Autostart Queues
You must enable autostart on a node to start autostart queues.
Once you have created autostart execution queues, perform
the following steps to enable autostart:
1. For each node on which you want autostart queues to run
(including those to which the queues can later fail over),
enter the ENABLE AUTOSTART/QUEUES command.
This command starts all stopped active autostart queues
on a node and starts any active autostart queue that fails
over to the node from another node in the VMScluster
environment.
2. Add the ENABLE AUTOSTART/QUEUES command to
your startup command procedure on each node that is to
run autostart queues to ensure that autostart is enabled
each time the node reboots.
Section 13.9.1.3 explains enabling autostart in detail.
1 Creates an autostart queue named LPA0 and activates it
for autostart. Because this is an autostart queue with a
failover list, this queue can run on either LILITH::LPA0
or SMITTN::LPA0.
2 Creates an autostart queue named LN03_1 for LAT
printers and activates it for autostart. Because this is an
autostart queue with a failover list, this queue can run on
either of the printers attached to LAT ports LTA3331: on
node LILITH or LTA555: on node SMITTN.
3 Enables autostart on the node on which the process is
running. Assume this is node LILITH. Because both
LPA0 and LN03_1 are active autostart queues capable of
running on node LILITH, these queues will start up on
this node.
4 Enables autostart on node SMITTN. If LILITH becomes
unavailable, both LPA0 and LN03_1 can fail over to node
SMITTN.
13.7.2.2 Nonautostart Execution Queues
To create a nonautostart execution queue, specify the /ON
qualifier with the INITIALIZE/QUEUE command.
Type of Queue Command
You can omit the /START qualifier, and start the queue later
using the START/QUEUE command. For more informa-
tion, see the INITIALIZE/QUEUE and START/QUEUE
commands in the OpenVMS DCL Dictionary .
Example
$ INITIALIZE/QUEUE/BATCH/START/JOB_LIMIT=6/BASE_PRIORITY=4 -
_$ /ON=LILITH:: SYS$BATCH
$ INITIALIZE/QUEUE/BATCH/START/JOB_LIMIT=1/BASE_PRIORITY=5 -
_$ /NODISABLE_SWAPPING/AUTOSTART_ON=LILITH:: FAST_BATCH
13.7.2.3 Generic Queues
To create a generic queue, enter a command in the following
format:
INITIALIZE/QUEUE[/START]/GENERIC=(execution-queue-list) generic-
queue-name
For example:
$ INITIALIZE/QUEUE/START/GENERIC=(LPA0,LPB0,LPC0) LINE_PRINT
The /GENERIC qualifier specifies that the queue is a generic
queue, and explicitly names a list of execution queues to
which the generic queue sends jobs.
The /START qualifier starts the queue. You can omit the
/START qualifier, and start the queue later using the START
/QUEUE command.
You can also set up a generic queue without explicitly naming
the execution queues to which it may send jobs. Instead, you
enable certain execution queues to receive jobs from generic
queues by specifying the /ENABLE_GENERIC qualifier with
the INITIALIZE/QUEUE, START/QUEUE, or SET QUEUE
command for the execution queue. This method is not nor-
mally recommended. However, if your queue configuration
is simple, you can use this method. For more information,
see the INITIALIZE/QUEUE, START/QUEUE, and SET
QUEUE commands in the OpenVMS DCL Dictionary .
Example
$ INITIALIZE/QUEUE/START -
_$ /GENERIC=(LN03_1,LN03_2,LN03_3,LN03_4) LN03_PRINT
$ INITIALIZE/QUEUE/START/GENERIC=(LPA0:,LPB0:,LPC0:) SYS$PRINT
13.7.3 Creating a Command Procedure to Restart
Execution Queues on Reboot
Information about forms and characteristics and queues is
stored in the queue database. For this reason, creating forms
queues and characteristics each time the node or VMScluster
reboots is unnecessary. However, you must start nonau-
tostart execution queues and enable autostart each time a
node reboots. To do so, create a command procedure.
If your configuration is simple, you can add the commands to
the site-specific startup command procedure SYSTARTUP_
VMS.COM. If your configuration requires a large number
of commands, create a separate command procedure and
execute it from SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM.
Generic queues are not automatically stopped when a node
shuts down. Therefore, including commands to start generic
queues in your startup command procedure is unnecessary.
Starting Nonautostart Queues
For each queue that is not an autostart queue, you must in-
clude a START/QUEUE command naming the queue in your
startup command procedure.
Enabling Autostart
You can start all stopped active autostart queues on a node
by enabling autostart for queues with the single command
ENABLE AUTOSTART/QUEUES. Including a separate
START/QUEUE command to start an active autostart
queue is not necessary. For details on enabling autostart,
see Section 13.9.1.3.
When a node reboots, autostart is disabled until you enter
the ENABLE AUTOSTART/QUEUES command. Add the
ENABLE AUTOSTART/QUEUES command to your startup
command procedure following the commands that configure
printer devices and mount important disks. Digital rec-
ommends you add the ENABLE AUTOSTART/QUEUES
command to your startup procedure on all of your nodes.
This eliminates the necessity of adding the command later,
if you need to add autostart queues or add nodes to autostart
queue failover lists.
Example
The following example illustrates some sample commands
that might be added to a node's SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM
procedure.
$! Start the nonautostart batch queue
$ START/QUEUE SYS$BATCH
$! Start all autostart queues
$ ENABLE AUTOSTART/QUEUES
For more examples, see the SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP_
VMS.COM template on your system disk.