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Performance Improvements at Point Of Sale - A Guide to Getting the most out of your 4690 System.

It is clear that many of the IBM 4690 POS applications could use an overhaul. But who has the time? And where would one start?

Learn more.

Terminal Snapshot Dump
Application Serviceability Pack

 

Overview - Brief Description of Feature

Terminal Snapshot Dump is an InSight Terminal Agent feature that quickly writes selective terminal memory areas to a file on the controller without restarting terminal. Included in the dump are various InSight trace and log histories and optional application data areas.  Multiple options exist to trigger a snapshot dump: 

  • A user pressing  5 clear keys in a row within a certain time frame being
  • InSight utility program that is installed on the controller
  • Management client invoking an API function
  • Terminal application API
  • Custom 'trigger' code added to the terminal agent to catch a know problem condition

Problem - What Problem Does the Feature Solve?

Full terminal dumps have been the primary way to collect problem determination information for diskless 4690 terminalsExtensive debug logging is not really an option because of the write burden that logging from many terminals puts on the 4690 controllers and the fact that 4690 controllers have no disk write caching.  Also, full terminal dumps are often interrupted by store associates eager to get terminals back online and so they often are not available.  Finally, interpretation of full terminal dumps often requires IBM involvement.  The snapshot dump feature was designed and developed to help solve these issues and to make it much more likely for customers to get to InSights trace information when needed.

Solution - Short Description of How the Feature Works

The following are characteristics of the snapshot dump facility:

  • The terminal agent (TA) maintains a list of memory areas that will be written to disk if a snapshot dump is triggered.
  • TA supports a command message from the controller agent to invoke a snapshot dump.
  • TA sends a 'snapshot dump complete' event to CA.
  • TA writes dump file to QSA_DMPT: directory (typically this is c:\qsa\dmpt).
  • 5 snapshot dumps per terminal are kept by default (tttSnapD.001 - tttSnapD.005).
  • TA determines which keystroke is the clear key and looks for 5 clear presses in a row as a default trigger mechanism.
  • The Terminal Application API feature of InSight provides functions/methods for registering memory areas and triggering a snapshot dump.
  • The Controller Terminal Dump Management feature formats, compresses and archives snapshot dump information.
  • The Base Controller feature  includes a utility for invoking a snapshot dump from a command line.  Source code for this feature is available with the 'C' Management API feature.

Example output when snapshot dump utility is run from a controller command promt:

C:\temp>forcesnp.exe –u1.1 192.168.2.204 -s1

Starting forceSnp
Attempting to connect 192.168.2.204
Connected.
Logging on.Logon successful.
SnapDump request sent successfully to term 1
Waiting for SnapDump Archive Start Event.....
SnapDump Formatting/Archiving Started
Waiting for SnapDump Archive Complete Event................................
SnapDump Complete and Archived

 
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