Understanding the ins and outs of activation groups -- Part I

When you break it down, the Integrated Language Environment (ILE) is nothing more than a new program run-time environment, a new model for how the system executes programs. The compilers made for ILE (C, CL, COBOL and RPG) create programs that will execute in this new run-time environment, but the compilers themselves are not technically part of ILE. It you were forced to embody ILE in a system object, that object would most certainly be the activation group.

Activation groups are an AS/400 programmer's dream come true. Activation groups provide programmers with tremendous application design flexibility. As designed, an ILE program could not run without activation groups. An activation group's sole purpose is to help run ILE programs. They are truly the foundation of ILE and it is, therefore, very important to thoroughly understand what these things do and to know how to control them before tackling any major ILE development.

Activation groups can also be an administrator's worst nightmare. An improperly designed application can spawn dozens of activation groups, end normally, and leave all those activation groups open, locking up precious resources. Multiply that scenario by hundreds of users and you have the makings of an administrator's headache.

Activa

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tion group: A definition

If you are familiar with the function of a job's process access group (PAG), you are already familiar with at least the basic function of an activation group. An activation group is a chunk of system memory and other resources dedicated to a specific job for the purpose of executing programs. It is a substructure of the job to which it is assigned and contains the following resources:

All those resources are kept separate for each activation group, allowing you to isolate applications in activation groups. When an activation group is deleted, all its resources are freed up and returned to the system.

Two types of activation groups

There are two basic types of activation groups, ILE and non-ILE (the latter is called the default activation group).

In the next installment, we discuss how to control activation groups, the different types of activation groups, and some strategies for using them effectively and efficiently.

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About the author: Ron Turull is editor of Inside Version 5. He has more than 20 years experience programming for and managing AS/400-iSeries systems.

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