Server command processing

Tivoli® Storage Manager processes administrator commands either in the foreground or in the background. Commands that process in the foreground must complete before you can issue another command. When commands are processing in the background, you can issue additional commands at any time.

Most Tivoli Storage Manager commands process in the foreground. For some commands that normally process in the background (for example, BACKUP DB), you can specify the WAIT parameter (WAIT=YES) with the command so that the command processes in the foreground. You might want to process a command in the foreground rather than in the background for any of the following reasons:

To quickly determine whether a command completed successfully. When you issue a command that processes in the foreground, Tivoli Storage Manager sends a confirmation message indicating that the command completed successfully. If you process the command in the background, you need to open operational reporting or query the activity log to determine whether the command completed successfully.
To monitor server activities (for example, messages) on the administrative client as a command is being processed. This might be preferable to searching a long activity log after the command has completed.
To be able to start another process immediately after a command has completed. For example, you might specify WAIT=YES for a command that takes a short time to process so that, when the processing completes, you can immediately start processing another command.
To serialize commands in an administrative script when it is important that one command completes before another begins.

Check the individual command description to determine whether a command has a WAIT parameter.

You can cancel commands that are processed in the foreground from the server console or from another administrative client session.

Each background process is assigned a process number. Use the QUERY PROCESS command to obtain the status and process number of a background process.

Note:

If you are defining a schedule with a command that specifies WAIT=NO (the default), and you issue QUERY EVENT to determine the status of your scheduled operation, failed operations will report an event status of COMPLETED with a return of OK. In order for the QUERY EVENT output to reflect the failed status, the WAIT parameter must be set to YES. This will run the scheduled operation in the foreground and inform you of the status when it completes.
You cannot process commands in the foreground from the server console.