I have been following an installation for some software and I have come across this instruction which has stopped me in my tracks.

"The batch processing queue, SYS$BATCH, must be defined for the system..."

If I type:

$ show log sys$batch

I get:

%SHOW-S-NOTRAN, no translation for logical name SYS$BATCH

So this is not something that is already defined. I need to do it myself.

The documentation continues:

SYS$BATCH must be initialized as an

execution queue. The /GENERIC option for SYS$BATCH initialization is not allowed.

What does this mean?

none

SYS$BATCH is a queue and should show up with the command :
$ SHOW QUEUE SYS$BATCH

Something like this will be displayed :

Batch queue SYS$BATCH, idle, on RULBR4::
/AUTOSTART_ON=(RULBR4::) /BASE_PRIORITY=3
/JOB_LIMIT=4 /OWNER=[SYSTEM]
/PROTECTION=(S:M,O:D,G:R,W:S)

If the queue is defined with /GENERIC it points to one or more batch or print queues. Generic queues show up like:

$ SHOW QUEUE SYS$BATCH

Generic batch queue SYS$BATCH
/GENERIC=(RULBR4_BATCH) /OWNER=[SYSTEM]
/PROTECTION=(S:M,O:D,G:R,W:S)

In this case the generic queue SYS$BATCH points to an execution queue RULBR4_BATCH

More info about queues with the command :
$ HELP QUEUE
or the OpenVMS system manager's manual, Volume 1 Essentials :
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/os82_index.html

How do I get sys$batch up and running?

Username: system
Password:
Welcome to OpenVMS (TM) Alpha Operating System, Version V7.2-1 on node AS800
Last interactive login on Tuesday, 5-JUL-2005 14:02:20.11
Last non-interactive login on Tuesday, 5-JUL-2005 16:30:33.79
$ SHOW QUE SYS$BATCH
%JBC-E-JOBQUEDIS, system job queue manager is not running
$ SHOW QUEUE SYSBATCH
%JBC-E-JOBQUEDIS, system job queue manager is not running
$

none

The documentation for starting the Queue Manager and Creating a Queue Database says to do this or to do that “only if you want to crate new database files” I assume that I do want to create new database files because of this:

$ SHOW QUEUE SYSBATCH
%JBC-E-JOBQUEDIS, system job queue manager is not running

none

Have you tried to START the queue manager ?
$ START /QUEUE /MANAGER

If it complains about not having a database, you probably do not have one, or the logical pointing to it is lost. The name of the default database is SYS$SYSTEM:QMAN$MASTER.DAT

Do you have a printer connected to the machine, because they also use queues and a queue manager.

$ START/QUEUE/MANAGER/NEW_VERSION

Is supposed to create the server. Isn't that correct?

I type:

$ START/QUEUE/MANAGER/NEW_VERSION

and it does not give me any errors. THat means it
started. Isn't that correct?

So I go to where the QMAN$MASTER.DAT file is to make
sure it is created

$ SET DEF SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSEXE]
$ DIR *MASTER.DAT

Directory SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]

QMAN$MASTER.DAT;1 TFF$MASTER.DAT;1

Total of 2 files.

So, I see it is there.

Now I check on sys$batch.

$ SHOW QUEUE SYS$BATCH
%JBC-E-NOSUCHQUE, no such queue
$

It still does not work.

none

You have only created the queue-manager, not the queue. You create one with a command like:
$ INITIALIZE/QUEUE/BATCH SYS$BATCH

To see if it is created you can do :
$ SHOW QUEUE SYS$BATCH /FULL

I don't know if your package has some requirements for the queue, like the amount of jobs that can run concurrent, security, ownership or the priority of the jobs ? You can always change queue parameters with the SET QUEUE command.

After you created the queue you activate it with the START /QUEUE command.

You should als put the start/queue and start/queue/manager comands in your startup file.