Domino Diva

The Work with Domino Servers (WRKDOMSVR) command is a wonderful utility provided with the Lotus Domino server code for i5/OS.  It provides an interface to work with Domino servers in many ways.  The most commonly used features are starting, stopping, and displaying or working with the Domino console.  There are some options on the WRKDOMSVR command that are seldom used, however they provide some very helpful features.  These features aren't displayed on the main screen for this command, therefore I am finding few people know about them.

These hidden features are options 14, 15, and 16.  Option 14 is 'Work with support files'.  This option takes you directly into the IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT subdirectory of the Domino server's data directory.  Option 15 is 'Work with NSDs' which takes you into the IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT directory and only displays the NSD files.  Option 16 is 'Dump server call stacks'.  This option is especially helpful if you are experiencing a server hang condition or other critical issues with your Domino server.  By using option 16, call stacks are dumped for each active job running on the Domino server.  It used to be that you had to download a special utility to dump the call stacks, now it is as simple as specifying option 16 next to the Domino server!

There is one other option I would like to point out.  This one is shown on the main WRKDOMSVR screen, however I find it is not used as frequently as it could be.  This is option 9, 'Work server jobs'.  I find I use this option all the time.  I can quicly see which jobs are running on the Domino server, what their run state is, how much CPU they are consuming, and the number of threads that are active under the job.  When working with customers, I often see people switching to WRKACTJOB to see the jobs running under the Domino subsystem.  Once I show them how easy it is to get to the information they're looking for by simplying selecting option 9, they are quite pleased.