Stopping ProTop for dictionary changes and other maintenance.

I have to do some work on my system and I don't want ProTop to alert me while this is going on, how do I put alert emails and texts on hold?

Stopping ProTop for Dictionary Changes

If you apply dictionary changes in single-user mode or use online schema changes, ProTop does not interfere and does not need to be stopped.

If the database runs in multi-user mode and you attempt to load a df from the data dictionary without checking the "Add new objects online" box, the ProTop agent, a regular 4GL client, will prevent exclusive access to the database schema.

In that case, you can pause ProTop using one of the following methods:

Schedule an Outage (Preferred)

Run the maintenance.sh (or .bat on Windows) script, using the "on" option and specifying the number of hours for the outage:

bin/maintenance.sh on 2     <== for *nix

or

bin\maintenance.bat on 2 <== for Windows

This will disable ProTop for all of the resources on this server and create an Outage entry on the portal for these resources so that emails and pages are not sent out during that window.

You can also create an outage directly on the portal by selecting the Outage option from the dropdown menu in the upper right or by clicking the Outages icon in the left side menu, depending on the version of the ProTop Portal you are using. 

Manual Stop

If you prefer to control the stop and start of ProTop manually:

  1. Stop the ProTop service

    • For UNIX - comment out the dbmonitor cron job
    • For Windows - stop the Windows service
  2. Delete $PROTOP/tmp/*.flg. This stops all ProTop processes (dbmonitor and pt3agents).

Restart ProTop

When you finish your schema changes or other maintenance, re-enable ProTop by either:

  1. Restarting the ProTop Service if you stopped it manually or, by
  2. Ending the scheduled maintenance you created above by running:
    bin/maintenance.sh off    <==  for *nix

    or

    bin\maintenance.bat off <== for Windows

    This will allow the ProTop Service (dbmonitor) to restart monitoring for the resources on this server and deactivate the Outage entry on the (new) portal. On the current portal, you can let the outage expire if it has not already or manually deactivate the outage to re-enable the flow of alert emails.