Access to each job is granted by specifying the owner, users or group identifiers that are to have access using this Access Control List. The level of access is specified for each identifier.
Job alerts are a pop up window that notify the user of scheduling events that may need to be responded to or just as a reminder that an event took place. Job alerts apply to all jobs that are run on a particular client and are turned on and off in that clients Options section.
The EnterpriseSCHEDULE assistant is a beginner's quick start guide to the basic operation of the software. It includes information about through hypertext links and quick links to wizards and other tools. You may choose to leave the assistant on when starting EnterpriseSCHEDULE or turn this feature off.
A calendar is used to show the days during the month a job is allowed or is not allowed to run. Any number of separate calendars can be set up. Using alphabetic characters to turn days on for scheduling, a user can create a wide variety of custom calendars that fit the needs of their job sets. They can be set up system wide or specific to a user. Holidays are defined in a separate calendar which can optionally be superimposed on any other calendar.
The SCHEDULE System is designed as a client/server processing pair. All the foreground user interfaces connect to the server process to perform all primary functions. The foreground clients are the user interface programs. These foreground processes just communicate with the user and then request the server to perform all activities.
The main function of most EnterpriseSCHEDULE jobs is the processing of the command list. The commands in the list are issued when the job is executed. The list may contain any batch file or executable accessible from the Windows environment. In addition any DOS commands which control the environment or flow of a batch file may be used.
The last run of the job terminated with this completion status.
Connections give jobs the ability to be dependent on one another and allow virtually unlimited possibilities when it comes to setting conditions for the flow and execution of those jobs. The two basic types of interdependencies are initiates and prerequisites.
This is the historical average CPU time used by the job.
Viewing the current state of a job provides real time information about how a job is progressing through the states of the SCHEDULE system. It can provide valuable information if the job is stalled. It is also helpful to know if the job is waiting for a start time to begin or has completed and displaying status. The current state window displays information about the job run and a dynamic state graphic bar that reflects real time state changes. For more on the states of jobs, see Scheduling states.
Whenever a new job is created a set of default values is loaded into all the fields of the job definition. These fields are picked up from a special job entry that is named DEFAULT. This DEFAULT job entry is located by a search process.
If you are creating a job in a subfolder an attempt is made to locate a default entry in that subfolder. If that fails, an attempt is made to locate it in the top folder. If that fails, an attempt is made to find one in the \default\ folder. If that fails a set of hard coded default values are loaded.
The Delayed after setting is the time frame which will be used to determine that a job is delayed. This is computed as the sum of the average elapsed time of past job runs and the delayed after interval which is input by the user. For instance if the average elapsed time of a job is 12 minutes and you set the delayed after interval to 3 minutes, the notification will take place if a job has been delayed past this combined total of 15 minutes.
The EnterpriseSCHEDULE demos are a quick and easy way to get a look at some of the capabilities of the system. The demos basically display the flow of a job set doing very little (wait states). The transition of jobs through their scheduling states is illustrated through colorful icons changing.
This count is decremented each time a job is submitted for execution. When a value of zero is reached, all automatic job submissions terminate. This is used to limit the number of runs. A value of INFINITE or -1 indicates an unlimited number of runs are allowed. Click on the Infinite button to set the down submit count to infinite.
This is the historical average elapse time for the job.
The End Actions of a job performed after a job's commands are completed. Using end actions you can perform advanced logic into the job that will be executed during the final stage of the job.
The Event filter can be used to limit the events listed in the Event monitor window. Filters are an easy way to view only those events that you are interested in. For example, you may be interested in viewing events on a certain node or with a certain set id. This also prevents the Event monitor entries from growing to unmanageable numbers after a period of time.
The execution window is the interval in which a job must be initiated and completed. If a job goes beyond this window then any initiates that it might have started are not activated. If you look at the scheduling queues this is the time it takes a job to travel from the C or D queue to the M queue.
The job last finished at this time.
The SCHEDULE System supports two levels of folders, a top level and one sublevel. Though the concept of folders is identical to the folders used in Windows, EnterpriseSCHEDULE folders are organized within the central database.
Groups are collections of users that all share the same access rights. The users identifier is assigned to the group by modifying the user record.
A group is all the processes and data files that are needed to perform any scheduling function. Up to 3 completely independent SCHEDULE Systems can be running on any one server. When the software is loaded, group 0 is automatically created. Each copy is given a group number between 0 and 2. Group 0 is accessible to any other group 0 process in the cluster or network. Each group is totally independent.
This separation is very useful if for example, both a development group and a production group are using the same machine and total separation is required. Another example might be if you want all your backup jobs to be in one group and your financial analysis jobs in another.
This is the historical average I/O count used by the job.
The identifier is the reverse lookup tag used by groups and users to reference that record in the database. Though seldom changed, the record can be adjusted if desired.
The forward going connection is called an "initiate". Initiates are triggered when a job completes. Associated with each initiate can be a condition or severity level at which the next job should be triggered. In this way, different branches can be taken based on the success/failure of a particular job.
A short (up to 100 characters) description of the job.
The EnterpriseSCHEDULE Explorer is the point of access to all objects that make up the system. From this handy interface, you can access job descriptions, directories, calendars variables and all other built in objects. The Explorer features a interface modeled after the Windows explorer and is therefore easy to learn and use.
The EnterpriseSCHEDULE database is made up of jobs, variables, calendars, reports, startup files and layouts contained in a two tiered folder system. Folders provide a handy way to organize these objects in the database based on job groups, layouts or any other way that makes sense. For instance you can put all the jobs, calendars and variables that have to do with your finance department job scheduling in a folder called finance and subfolders called accounting, accounts payable etc.
The EnterpriseSCHEDULE Monitor is a real time monitoring tool used to view the progress and history of job events throughout the scheduling states. Using the Monitor, you can observe vast amounts of data regarding performance, resource usage and recent job events. This vital tool enables the user to not only view the activities of the scheduler, it allows for comprehensive performance tuning and analysis.
A job in the SCHEDULE database is essentially a self-contained processing unit. All the information needed to perform the processing is defined for each job in the control file. A group of jobs can be grouped into a set.
A set of jobs is just a collection of jobs that are connected to each other using either prerequisites or initiates. They can be in the same or different directories. They can be on the same or different nodes in a network.
A job is the component of EnterpriseSCHEDULE that performs the automated and/or controlled execution of tasks either by rescheduled time based execution, manual submission, execution by interconnected job initiation or resource evaluation based execution.
A Job Variable is a variable that is specific to a job and that is contained in a particular job record. Job Variables can be edited in the Parameter tab of the job or in the Notes tab of the job. Job Variables may also be included in other jobs using the INCLUDE directive.
In Schedule, the Layout is the visual and functional representation of job interaction. Setting up jobs, assigning job dependencies, scheduling start times and setting up job groups are just some of the things you can do in the layout area. The best way to get started understanding layouts, is to describe the various components of a job layout.
The log file lists the recent events that the job has progressed through, including the times of the events. You can right click on the job to open job alerts (messages for events that have been designated as important), change the jobs properties or view it's current state. For now, just select View Log and look at the job's log file. This will tell you the latest log information for the job in a printable text format.
Using a marked calendar to schedule jobs on designated days is a two step process. The first step is to create the calendar and mark the days that the job runs are to take place. The second step is to designate a job as using that calendar and setting a time for the job run on the marked days and a next start time for the next run.
A notice is just additional text information that is to be included with a notification mail message pertaining to a particular job. For example a very important update job must properly complete to ensure that all the day's activities operate properly. In this case a failure message might be sent to the operator including the text "Call John Doe X344 immediately".
Notifications can be set for a variety of events for a job as it proceeds through the system. There are six types of events that trigger notification processing.
There are 8 submit parameter fields (P1 through P8). Each field is character data that is passed into the batch job as symbols P1, P2, ...,P8.
For each job two batch files can be defined. The pre-job batch file is a file that contains a series of batch commands that are to be executed before the job's own batch commands. The post-job batch file is executed afterwards. This is a useful place for operations that are common to all jobs (or a family of jobs) .
By modifying your local default job you can have a common pre-job and post-job command added automatically to each new job that you create.
Prerequisites hold up a job, preventing it from being submitted. When the prerequisite job completes, the job will be freed up for execution.
The primary server is the server that will appear first when you log in to the system. You should set this to the server that is used most often. The primary server can be changed if desired.
An important component of the SCHEDULE is a general purpose report writer. The SCHEDULE system interfaces this report writer to the SCHEDULE database. The report writer is controlled by a group of report definitions. A group of 80 (32 history data, 48 control data) report definitions are provide with the system. All these definitions can be customized as needed or new ones defined.
Any job that is using time based starts will have a rescheduling method established. When the start time of a job occurs the job is initiated and the next start time is identified using the declared rescheduling method.
There are four methods that can be used.
Method |
Description |
Named day |
Select the start days by their names. |
Interval |
Specify a start time and interval. |
Marked Calendar |
Marks on calendar indicate start days. |
Monthly |
Job can be run monthly on a specific day of the month (i.e. First Monday) |
Resource requirements are the necessary conditions that must be satisfied before a job's commands can be executed.
Each job in the SCHEDULE database can specify either or both disk space and a file requirement. If more then one file or one disk is required multiple job entries can be strung together. The first job, once requirements are satisfied, initiates a second job which then waits for another set of requirements.
The disk space requirement is specified as the number of free disk space that must exist on a specified disk volume before the job is allowed to proceed to the next scheduling state.
The purpose of a variable is to allow job switching and wait state controls that go beyond the traditional prerequisites and initiates. The values contained in variables can exist either in the database or as a local, temporary variable.
Any job can be set up to be automatically resubmitted for execution if a failure occurs. Typical failures are a node shutdown or a program aborting. In a cluster environment it is useful to have jobs submitted into a generic batch queue. In this way if a node goes down the job gets resubmitted into the generic queue which can then in turn route the job to another node.
It is possible to connect to other SCHEDULE servers in addition to the primary server. This makes it possible to perform all SCHEDULE database maintenance, job scheduling and job monitoring on the additional servers. It also makes it possible to copy directories and their contents from one server to another.
The job last started at this time.
Each job can be assigned a startup window interval. The startup window is used by jobs that are waiting for a start time in the scheduling queue B. This interval represents the allowed time period during which a job must exit from the B queue.
The job statistics provides important data that can be used to gauge the efficiency of your job runs. The measured time can be compared to the user set estimated value to determine if the job is running at it's peak performance level.
All job scheduling activity is controlled by a series of scheduling states. For example one state is used to hold jobs waiting for disk space. The various scheduling states are identified by a single letter. In general jobs start at the top (state A) and progress downward (state S).
The job was last submitted for execution at this time.
The Syscontrol directory contains category subfolders. These are:
Category |
Description |
Groups are collections of users that all share the same access rights. The users identifier is assigned to the group by modifying the user record. |
|
User records are assigned for any user that logs into the server. An identifier is assigned automatically. User records can be changed to increase or decrease access rights. |
|
Identifiers are numerical codes that represent Users and groups in the database. |
These settings may be modified by an administrator.
The SYSPROXY directory contains proxy settings for users on remote systems. The directory structure is based on the domain/node of the user. When the user logs in from a remote system, the domain/node subdirectory is created in the SYSPROXY directory and the record is placed in that directory. Local settings for that user are assigned to the remote proxy settings.
This count is incremented each time a job is submitted for execution.
User settings allow the Administrator to assign access rights to a user. If the user is to be part of a group, the group settings take precedence over user settings. See Group and user privileges for the privileges that may be granted.
EnterpriseSCHEDULE features 3 handy Wizards that make it easy to create jobs, calendars and variables, important components of scheduling. Wizards guide the user through the required steps of creating the objects and then make the object available for use in scheduling. They are especially useful to the new user to get familiar with the basics of job interaction in EnterpriseSCHEDULE.
In EnterpriseSCHEDULE, a workgroup is more than one node