Greetings team,

Ref
https://community.ibm.com/community/user/power/discussion/python-itoolkit-how-to-retrieve-a-return-value-from-a-cl-program

Background
I'm currently looking into developing some Ansible code to monitor systems on my IBMi LPAR(s).  I checked the ibm.power_ibmi collection modules [https://galaxy.ansible.com/ui/repo/published/ibm/power_ibmi/] however wasn't able to find a module|task|role which returned the status of a subsystem (for example).

So, with that said I started looking at iToolKit [https://pypi.org/project/itoolkit/] (and the XMLSERVICE) and came up with the below.  My question is why am I getting the *BADPARSE error message as the API is actually returning the correct status of QINTER namely that being "*ACTIVE"?

import sys
from itoolkit import *
from itoolkit.transport import DirectTransport

# Create an instance of the iToolkit
itool = iToolKit()

transport = DirectTransport()

itool.add(
    iPgm('qwdrsbsd','QWDRSBSD')
    .addParm(iDS('QWDRSBSD_t',{'len':'sbslen'})
    .addData(iData('sbsRet','10i0',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsAvl','10i0',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsNam','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsLib','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsSts','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsDevNam','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsDevLib','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsSecLng','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsMaxAct','10i0',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsCurAct','10i0',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsStrPoolCnt','10i0','',{'enddo':'mycnt'}))
    .addData(iDS('sbs_pool',{'dim':'999','dou':'mycnt'})
        .addData(iData('sbspoolNam','10a',''))
        .addData(iData('sbspoolRes1','6a',''))
        .addData(iData('sbspoolSiz','10i0',''))
        .addData(iData('sbspoolActLvl','10i0',''))
        )
    )
    .addParm(iData('rcvlen','10i0','',{'setlen':'sbslen'}))
    .addParm(iData('fmtNam','8a','SBSI0100'))
    .addParm(iData('qualSbsNam','20a','QINTER    *LIBL     '))
    .addParm(iDS('ERRC0100_t',{'len':'errlen'})
        .addData(iData('errRet','10i0',''))
        .addData(iData('errAvl','10i0',''))
        .addData(iData('errExp','7a','',{'setlen':'errlen'}))
        .addData(iData('errRsv','1a',''))
    )
)

# Debug
print('XML_IN:')
print(itool.xml_in())
print('')

itool.call(transport)

# Retrieve the results
result = itool.dict_out('qwdrsbsd')  # Get the output buffer

# Debug
print('Result:')
print(result)
print('')

# Debug
print('XML_OUT:')
print(itool.xml_out())

sys.exit(0)

"print(itool.xml_in())" generates the below.

<xmlservice><pgm name="QWDRSBSD" error="fast" var="qwdrsbsd"><parm io="both" var="p1"><ds len="sbslen" var="QWDRSBSD_t"><data type="10i0" var="sbsRet"/><data type="10i0" var="sbsAvl"/><data type="10a" var="sbsNam"/><data type="10a" var="sbsLib"/><data type="10a" var="sbsSts"/><data type="10a" var="sbsDevNam"/><data type="10a" var="sbsDevLib"/><data type="10a" var="sbsSecLng"/><data type="10i0" var="sbsMaxAct"/><data type="10i0" var="sbsCurAct"/><data type="10i0" enddo="mycnt" var="sbsStrPoolCnt"/><ds dim="999" dou="mycnt" var="sbs_pool"><data type="10a" var="sbspoolNam"/><data type="6a" var="sbspoolRes1"/><data type="10i0" var="sbspoolSiz"/><data type="10i0" var="sbspoolActLvl"/></ds></ds></parm><parm io="both" var="p2"><data type="10i0" setlen="sbslen" var="rcvlen"/></parm><parm io="both" var="p3"><data type="8a" var="fmtNam"><![CDATA[SBSI0100]]></data></parm><parm io="both" var="p4"><data type="20a" var="qualSbsNam"><![CDATA[QINTER    *LIBL     ]]></data></parm><parm io="both" var="p5"><ds len="errlen" var="ERRC0100_t"><data type="10i0" var="errRet"/><data type="10i0" var="errAvl"/><data type="7a" setlen="errlen" var="errExp"/><data type="1a" var="errRsv"/></ds></parm></pgm></xmlservice>

"print(result)" generates the below.

{'error': {'error': '*BADPARSE', 'error1': ' ?xml version=\'1.0\'? xmlservice pgm name="QWDRSBSD" error="fast" var="qwdrsbsd" parm io="both" var="p1" ds len="sbslen" var="QWDRSBSD_t" data type="10i0" var="sbsRet" 136 /data data type="10i0" var="sbsAvl" 136 /data data type="10a" var="sbsNam" QINTER /data data type="10a" var="sbsLib" QSYS /data data type="10a" var="sbsSts" *ACTIVE /data data type="10a" var="sbsDevNam" QDSIGNON /data data type="10a" var="sbsDevLib" QSYS /data data type="10a" var="sbsSecLng" *NONE /data data type="10i0" var="sbsMaxAct" -1 /data data type="10i0" var="sbsCurAct" 0 /data data type="10i0" enddo="mycnt" var="sbsStrPoolCnt" 2 /data ds dim="999" dou="mycnt" var="sbs_pool" data type="10a" var="sbspoolNam" ', 'qwdrsbsd': {...}}}

"print(itool.xml_out())" generates the below.

<error>*BADPARSE</error>
<error><![CDATA[ ?xml version='1.0'? xmlservice pgm name="QWDRSBSD" error="fast" var="qwdrsbsd" parm io="both" var="p1" ds len="sbslen" var="QWDRSBSD_t" data type="10i0" var="sbsRet" 136 /data data type="10i0" var="sbsAvl" 136 /data data type="10a" var="sbsNam" QINTER /data data type="10a" var="sbsLib" QSYS /data data type="10a" var="sbsSts" *ACTIVE /data data type="10a" var="sbsDevNam" QDSIGNON /data data type="10a" var="sbsDevLib" QSYS /data data type="10a" var="sbsSecLng" *NONE /data data type="10i0" var="sbsMaxAct" -1 /data data type="10i0" var="sbsCurAct" 0 /data data type="10i0" enddo="mycnt" var="sbsStrPoolCnt" 2 /data ds dim="999" dou="mycnt" var="sbs_pool" data type="10a" var="sbspoolNam" ]]></error>
</xmlservice>
{'error': '*BADPARSE', 'error1': ' ?xml version=\'1.0\'? xmlservice pgm name="QWDRSBSD" error="fast" var="qwdrsbsd" parm io="both" var="p1" ds len="sbslen" var="QWDRSBSD_t" data type="10i0" var="sbsRet" 136 /data data type="10i0" var="sbsAvl" 136 /data data type="10a" var="sbsNam" QINTER /data data type="10a" var="sbsLib" QSYS /data data type="10a" var="sbsSts" *ACTIVE /data data type="10a" var="sbsDevNam" QDSIGNON /data data type="10a" var="sbsDevLib" QSYS /data data type="10a" var="sbsSecLng" *NONE /data data type="10i0" var="sbsMaxAct" -1 /data data type="10i0" var="sbsCurAct" 0 /data data type="10i0" enddo="mycnt" var="sbsStrPoolCnt" 2 /data ds dim="999" dou="mycnt" var="sbs_pool" data type="10a" var="sbspoolNam" '}

pip3 list gives me the below.

$ pip3 list
Package    Version
---------- --------
ibm-db     2.0.5.12
itoolkit   1.7.2
pip        21.1.2
setuptools 57.0.0
six        1.10.0
wheel      0.36.2
$

IBMi wise, I'm running 7.5 with Cume 23306 (IBM PowerVS stock image).

Many thanks, Steve

------------------------------
Steve Munday
AIX, IBM i, HMC, PowerVM
------------------------------

Dear Steve

I have no answer for your issue but I would like to offer an idea that you can also use SQL call instead (iSqlQuery) to SUBSYSTEM_INFO view (which returns columns that are closely related to the values returned by WRKSBS command and by QWDRSBSD API) to see if you can avoid the BADPARSE error.   I have a wild guess that asterisk in *ACTIVE and *NONE in the returned result you get may be the cause and expect that changing to SQL query to SUBSYSTEM_INFO view does not return asterisk (ACTIVE and NONE).  

------------------------------
Satid S
------------------------------

Hi Steve, 

  As Satid said you can use  SUBSYSTEM_INFO view   but you can use it directly from Ansible with the module ibmi_sql_query – Executes a SQL DQL(Data Query Language) statement. - IBM power_ibmi collection 1.0.0 documentation

------------------------------
Nicolae Chirea
System Architect
Seidor Iberia
Madrid/Spain
------------------------------

To monitor interactive system status I personally use, for this task, from the monitoring system, the simple database query

SELECT STATUS FROM SUBSYSTEM_INFO
WHERE (SUBSYSTEM_DESCRIPTION_LIBRARY, SUBSYSTEM_DESCRIPTION) = ('QSYS', 'QINTER')

you can very easily compose "assert" type things.

If you really want to wade across pure call based semantics, and marshalling demarshalling xml hell and string parsing, I would suggest to create a *PGM wrapper (that then calls the API) with a clean and simple parameter interface, to be used by any caller, would be easier to debug and maintain in case something goes awry along the way...

------------------------------
--ft
------------------------------

Satid, Nicolae, ace-ace,

Thanks for all your replies.  One thing I didn't mention is that whilst I'm initially testing out my theory on 7.5 I will have to ensure it works for 7.1 (shocking I know).

So, with that said, whilst the SQL approach works very nicely on the new(er) OS's I will be needing to delve into the iToolKit landscape to realise my objective.  I'm going to check some old RPG/API code I have to see if that throws up any guidance when it comes to defining the DS(s) just in case the *BADPARSE is more about field lengths rather than overall function as the call I've defined does return *ACTIVE for the QSYS/QINTER subsystem I'm checking (in my example).

I also plan to tap up the iToolKit team to get their take on things.

Many thanks, Steve

------------------------------
Steve Munday
AIX, IBM i, HMC, PowerVM
------------------------------

Looks like you missed the Pool ID under your sbs_pool struct.

------------------------------
Korinne Adler
------------------------------

Korinne,

Thank-you so much, I thought I was going nuts!!

The corrected DS with the missing Pool ID :-)

itool.add(
    iPgm('qwdrsbsd','QWDRSBSD')
    .addParm(iDS('QWDRSBSD_t',{'len':'sbslen'})
    .addData(iData('sbsRet','10i0',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsAvl','10i0',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsNam','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsLib','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsSts','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsDevNam','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsDevLib','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsSecLng','10a',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsMaxAct','10i0',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsCurAct','10i0',''))
    .addData(iData('sbsStrPoolCnt','10i0','',{'enddo':'mycnt'}))
    .addData(iDS('sbs_pool',{'dim':'999','dou':'mycnt'})
        .addData(iData('sbspoolID','10i0',''))
        .addData(iData('sbspoolNam','10a',''))
        .addData(iData('sbspoolRes1','6a',''))
        .addData(iData('sbspoolSiz','10i0',''))
        .addData(iData('sbspoolActLvl','10i0',''))
        )
    )
    .addParm(iData('rcvlen','10i0','',{'setlen':'sbslen'}))
    .addParm(iData('fmtNam','8a','SBSI0100'))
    .addParm(iData('qualSbsNam','20a','QINTER    *LIBL     '))
    .addParm(iDS('ERRC0100_t',{'len':'errlen'})
        .addData(iData('errRet','10i0',''))
        .addData(iData('errAvl','10i0',''))
        .addData(iData('errExp','7a','',{'setlen':'errlen'}))
        .addData(iData('errRsv','1a',''))
    )
)

{u'success': u'+++ success  QWDRSBSD', u'rcvlen': u'28052', u'fmtNam': u'SBSI0100', u'QWDRSBSD_t': {u'sbsNam': u'QINTER', u'sbsLib': u'QSYS', u'sbsAvl': u'136', u'sbsDevLib': u'QSYS', u'sbsCurAct': u'0', u'sbsDevNam': u'QDSIGNON', u'sbsSecLng': u'*NONE', u'sbsSts': u'*ACTIVE', u'sbsMaxAct': u'-1', u'sbsStrPoolCnt': u'2', u'sbsRet': u'136', u'sbs_pool': [{u'sbspoolRes1': '', u'sbspoolID': u'1', u'sbspoolSiz': u'0', u'sbspoolNam': u'*BASE', u'sbspoolActLvl': u'0'}, {u'sbspoolRes1': '', u'sbspoolID': u'2', u'sbspoolSiz': u'0', u'sbspoolNam': u'*INTERACT', u'sbspoolActLvl': u'0'}]}, u'qualSbsNam': u'QINTER    *LIBL', u'ERRC0100_t': {u'errExp': '', u'errRet': u'0', u'errRsv': '', u'errAvl': u'0'}}

All the best, Steve

------------------------------
Steve Munday
AIX, IBM i, HMC, PowerVM
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 08, 2024 10:45 AM
From: Korinne Adler
Subject: python iToolKit - How to correctly call an API (QWDRSBSD) from python

Looks like you missed the Pool ID under your sbs_pool struct.

------------------------------
Korinne Adler
------------------------------