Reclaiming spooled file storage

You can use the Reclaim Spool Storage (RCLSPLSTG) command or the Automatically clean up unused printer output storage (QRCLSPLSTG) system value to reclaim spooled file storage. These are the only allowable ways to remove spooled database members from the QSPL or QSPLxxxx libraries. Any other way can cause severe problems.

For more information about spooled file storage, see Spooled file library.

Automatically clean up unused printer output storage (QRCLSPLSTG) system value

Use the Automatically clean up unused printer output storage (QRCLSPLSTG) system value to adjust the desired balance between spool performance and auxiliary storage. This system value can be used to clean up unused printer output storage on system auxiliary storage pools (ASPs), basic user ASPs and independent ASPs. For more information see, Storage system values: Automatically clean up unused printer output storage in the System values topic.

Note: System performance is degraded if Automatically clean up unused printer output storage (QRCLSPLSTG) is set to 0 days.

Assume that one of your application programs had an error and it produced thousands of spooled files that were of no value to you. When this happened those spooled files used lots of storage space on your system. To reclaim the spool storage, complete the following tasks:

  1. Change the Automatically clean up unused printer output storage (QRCLSPLSTG) system value to 1.
  2. Delete all the unwanted spooled files that the application program created. Note the time of day you deleted all the unwanted spooled files.
  3. After 24 hours, provided the empty spooled file members are not reused, the system reclaims the auxiliary storage that was being used by the empty spooled files.
  4. Change the Automatically clean up unused printer output storage (QRCLSPLSTG) system value back to its former value.

Reclaim Spool Storage (RCLSPLSTG) command

Alternatively, you can immediately reclaim all empty spooled file members by using the Reclaim Spool Storage (RCLSPLSTG) command with the DAYS parameter set to *NONE. This command can be used to clean up unused printer output storage on system auxiliary storage pools (ASPs), basic user ASPs, and independent ASPs.

Notes:
  1. Any unused database members are deleted immediately when running the RCPLSPLSTG command with the Days parameter set to *NONE. That means that there is no pool of unused members that can be used when creating spooled files.
  2. Lock contention can occur on output queues or spool database files, resulting in bottlenecks and severe performance problems.

Assume that one of your application programs had an error and it produced thousands of spooled files that were of no value to you. When this happened those spooled files used lots of storage space on your system. To reclaim the spool storage, complete the following tasks:

  1. Delete all the unwanted spooled files that the application program created.
  2. Run the RCLSPLSTG command with the DAYS parameter set to *NONE. The system immediately reclaims all auxiliary spool storage that was being used by the unwanted spooled files.

System ASP storage

You can reduce the amount of storage taken up by spooled files by moving or creating spooled files directly into a user auxiliary storage pool (ASP) or independent ASP. You can accomplish this by specifying *OUTQASP on the SPLFASP parameter when creating an output queue in a library that is located in the user ASP or independent ASP.

All spooled files that you place in this output queue have the spooled file data stored in the user ASP or independent ASP in a library QSPLxxxx, where xxxx is the user ASP or independent ASP number.

Note: For files on a user ASP, the links to the job still reside on the system ASP. If the system ASP is lost, all spooled files in the user ASPs are lost. If a user ASP is lost, only spooled files in that user ASP are lost.