Intermate AS/400, i5 manual Principle of OSC Output Schedule Control, Output Queue Spool file

Principle of OSC (Output Schedule Control)

In short OSC merges all spool files into one and sorts the pages by spool file attributes and/or text on each spool page. This merge can be done at certain times of the week, and it can also be initiated by choosing option 1=Run OSC from the OSC menu.

The merged SCS spool file can be distributed to one or more output queues, using a workload factor. These output queues should be monitored by Auto Forms Control and then merged. For this merge an overlay selector is recommended.

The incoming spool files can after the merge be either deleted or moved to another output queue.

In the following example, the output queue controlled by OSC, has 3 spool files.

In output queue 01, Spool file 1 has 5 pages (first page is for customer 1, next for customer 2 etc), the second spool file (spool file 2) has 6 pages and spool file 3 has 4 pages.

We have defined that the resulting print job(1 spool file) should be shared by 2 printers, with a workload factor of 40% for output queue 02 and 60% for output queue 03. As we have 15 spool pages in total to process, the resulting two spool files 4 and 5 will be as per below:

Contents of a Output Queue being monitored by OSC:

Spool file 1

Customer 1

Customer 2

Customer 3

Customer 4

Customer 5

Output Queue 01

Spool file 2

Customer 2

Customer 4

Customer 5

Customer 7

Customer 8

Customer 9

Spool file 3

Customer 2

Customer 7

Customer 9

Customer 9

Contents in the OSC defined Resulting Output Queues:

Output Queue 02

Workload 60%

Spool file 4

Customer 1

Customer 2

Customer 2

Customer 2

Customer 3

Customer 4

Customer 4

Customer 5

Customer 5

Output Queue 03

Workload 40%

Spool file 5

Customer 7

Customer 7

Customer 8

Customer 9

Customer 9

Customer 9

The resulting two spool files are now ready to be used as Input for Auto Forms Control.

250User’s Manual for InterForm400®