What are the subtle differences between various commands used for monitoring activation, namely " (4282808)

There are three commands associated with monitoring of activation, namely  "show config", "show activate" and "list config".  Each one has its own characteristic which this solution delves on.

Informational solution.

1. If you intend to find out the progress of the activation that has been launched recently (by "activate config" command), then you may want to open another sp_ctrl session (since the prompt for the current session will not return till the activation completes), and issue the command "show activate". The command will give the progress of the activation in terms of the count of tables activated and failed at the time of issuance of the command (the latter can happen if using a live activation since in the non-live activation a failure of one table can result in the abnormal termination of activation). If there is no activation in progress at this time, then the command will also show appropriate message like "No current activation process". This command is also issued to look for any sign of potential trouble with recently launched activation, for example, if one table is taking too long to activate due to activation process not being able to lock it. The following illustrates this:

sp_ctrl (server_name:port_num)> show activate

Config       : config_name
Datasource   : o.source_SID
Started      : 17-Nov-06 12:17:27
Actid        : 44

Activating 120 tables

   119 are activated
   0 tables have failed

Tables currently being processed:

Owner.tablename  Waiting for lock

2. If you intend to find out the statistics on the currently active config, then you need to issue "show config" command. If there is an active config, this command will display the name of the config, as well as the date, time, # of tables activated, # of tables failed, activation ID, etc. The following illustrates this:

sp_ctrl (server_name:port_num)> show config

This may take a moment.

Config     : config_name

Datasource : o. source_SID
Activated  : 19-Feb-08 20:48:10
Actid      : 11

Total Objects                 : 1050
Total Objects Replicating     : 1049
Total Objects Not Replicating : 1

3. If you wish to find out the name, size, date of creation/modification and status (active or inactive) of the various config files present in the config subdirectory of the vardir, then you need to issue "list config" command. If there is an active config file, then the command will not only show its status as "active" but would also list out the activation ID.  For example, the following output of "list config" shows that out of various config file present in the config directory of Shareplex, the active config is named Config2 and its activation ID is 14:

sp_ctrl (server_name:port_num)> list config

File   Name                                         State       Datasource
--------------------------------------------------  ----------
---------------

Config1                                    Inactive    o. source_SID
Last Modified At: 17-Aug-04 10:56    Size: 5785

Config2                                    Active      o. source_SID
Last Modified At: 21-Aug-08 01:19    Size: 6452    Internal Name: .conf.14

In brief, if you wish to see the progress of recently launched activation, you use "show activate". If you wish to know which config is active, you issue "show config" or "list config". The latter also provides details on the inactive config files.

The Reference Guide does delve on these commands at different sections since the commands are located in alphabetical order. This solution may help the user understand the commands as they relate to each other as well as the subtleties.