Administer nodes remotely using the job manager

In a flexible management environment, we can asynchronously submit and administer jobs for large numbers of stand-alone application servers, deployment managers, and host computers over a geographically dispersed area. At the remote machines, we can use jobs to manage applications, modify the product configuration, or do general purpose tasks such as run a script.

Install the WAS product.

A job manager is a single management server from which we can remotely manage multiple administrative agents, deployment managers, stand-alone (unfederated) application servers, and host computers.

In a flexible management environment, the job manager enables you to asynchronously submit and administer jobs for large numbers of stand-alone application servers, deployment managers, and host computers over a geographically dispersed area. Many of the management tasks that we can perform with the job manager are tasks that we can already perform with the product, such as application management, server management, and node management. However, with the job manager, we can aggregate the tasks and perform the tasks across multiple application servers, deployment managers, or host computers.

In contrast to a deployment manager, the job manager does not exclusively inherit the administrative functions of its registered targets. Targets that register with a job manager maintain their own administrative capabilities. Additionally, the targets periodically poll the job managers to determine whether there are jobs posted there that require action. We can administer all registered targets separately from the job manager. The advantage to a job manager is that we can administer targets in multiple varied environments.

To administer targets, you submit jobs using the job manager. We can submit jobs for individual targets or for groups of targets defined. After you submit a job, we can check the job status, check the status of targets, and check the status of target resources. The status of managed resources is not necessarily up-to-date. Status in the job manager console is updated only when a status job or an inventory job for the target containing the resource completes successfully. We can view target resources for targets and groups of targets that you administer. We can configure the job manager and view its properties.

• Set up the job manager environment.

  Create a job manager profile and any other profiles that are needed for the environment, synchronizing the clocks on all environment computers, and then registering the target profiles with the job manager. We can register stand-alone application servers that are already registered with an administrative agent or dmgr profiles. We can also add remote host computers as targets.

• Start and stop the job manager as needed.

  The job manager must be running to submit jobs and to enable targets to poll the job manager for jobs.

• Configure job managers.
  

  We can specify settings such as the default job expiration, the job manager web address, and the mail provider JNDI name for the job manager. We can view job manager properties such as the process ID and the state of the job manager.

• View information on targets using a job manager.
  

  We can view targets with their version numbers based on the results of the Find option and view target resources for targets selected. We can also view the properties and property values for a particular target.

• View information on target resources.
  

  We can view server, application, node, and cluster resources associated with targets and groups of targets registered to the job manager. We can also view the status of specific resources at each target and view properties for a particular target resource as a name-value pair.

• Submit jobs to administer servers, files, and applications.
  

  We can submit jobs to remote targets to manage applications, modify the product configuration on remote machines, or do general purpose tasks such as run a script. We can specify when the jobs start, whether they are recurring, and when they are no longer available for submission.

• Check the status of jobs.
  

  We can check the status of jobs, the status of jobs at their targets, and the job history of targets. We can suspend, resume, or delete jobs on the Job status collection page.

• Administer groups of targets using a job manager.
  

  We can create, modify, delete, and view groups of targets. Groups of targets make job submission simpler because we can submit a job for a group of targets instead of entering multiple target names for a job submission.

• Change the polling interval.
  

  We can increase or decrease the polling interval that a target uses to poll the job manager for jobs. The default polling interval is 30 seconds.

Results

Depending on the tasks that you completed, we might have submitted jobs, checked the status of jobs, viewed targets and target resources, or administered groups of targets.

What to do next

If we no longer need a target, unregister the target. We can unregister targets from a job manager in the following ways:

• To deregister application servers or deployment managers, run the wsadmin unregisterWithJobManager command in the ManagedNodeAgent command group or click Unregister from a Job Manager on the Register or unregister with job manager settings page of a deployment manager or administrative agent console.

• To deregister hosts, run the wsadmin unregisterHost command in the JobManagerNode command group or click Delete Host on the Targets page of a job manager or deployment manager console.

Use a deployment manager to unregister the deployment manager from a job manager. Use an administrative agent to unregister a stand-alone application server. To fully remove a stand-alone application server from the flexible management environment, first unregister the stand-alone application server from a job manager and then unregister it from an administrative agent.

Avoid trouble: Unregister a node before deleting its profile. For example, AppSrv02 is a stand-alone application server that is registered as nodeB. Use the administrative agent to unregister nodeB before deleting profile AppSrv02. For more information, see the topic on unregistering nodes of the administrative agent.

If the system fails when unregistering a target from a job manager, run the cleanupTarget command in the JobManagerNode group to clean up job manager registration information. The command does not remove the job history of the node that you are unregistering. Jobs in progress continue to run, but new jobs do not start for the node. See the topic on the JobManagerNode command group (AdminTask). gotcha

Subtopics

• Job manager
  In a flexible management environment, a job manager allows you to submit administrative jobs asynchronously for application servers registered to administrative agents, for deployment managers, and for host computers. We can submit these jobs to a large number of servers over a geographically dispersed area.

• Job manager security
  In a flexible management environment, a user ID must have the required authorization to use the job manager and to work with registered nodes.

• Job manager targets
  Job manager targets can include stand-alone application servers, deployment managers that have a federated node, and remote hosts. Before a job manager can access and run jobs on a target, you must register the target with the job manager.

• Job manager resources
  A job manager stores minimal information about its targets. However, it stores information about known resources on its targets. For targets that are stand-alone application server nodes, the resources include applications, servers, and their status. For targets that are deployment manager federated nodes, the resources include applications, servers, nodes, clusters, and their status. For targets that are remote hosts, the resources can include projects, binary files, applications, command files, software development kits, or other resources on the host and their status.

• Set up a job manager environment
  A job manager environment consists of a job manager and the targets that it manages. The job manager targets can be deployment managers, stand-alone application server nodes managed by administrative agents, and host computers. Setting up a job manager environment involves creating a job manager profile and any other profiles that are needed for the environment, synchronizing the clocks on all environment computers, and then registering the targets with the job manager.

• Start and stop the job manager
  In the flexible management environment, we can start the job manager using the startServer command. We can stop the job manager using the stopServer command.

• Configure job managers
  In a flexible management environment, we can specify settings such as the default job expiration, the job manager web address, and the mail provider JNDI name for the job manager. We can view job manager properties such as the process ID and the state of the job manager.

• View target information using the job manager
  In a flexible management environment, we can view targets with their version numbers based on the results of the Find option, and view target resources for targets selected. We can also view the properties and property values for a particular target.

• View target resource information using the job manager
  In a flexible management environment, we can view server, application, cluster, and host resources associated with targets and target groups registered to the job manager. We can also view the status of specific resources at each target, and view properties for a particular target resource as a name-value pair.

• Submitting jobs
  In a flexible management environment, we can submit jobs to remote targets to manage applications, modify the product configuration on remote machines, or do a general purpose task such as run a script. We can specify when the jobs start, whether they are recurring, and when they expire.

• Checking job status
  In a flexible management environment, we can check the overall status of jobs, the status of specific job targets, and the job history of targets. We can suspend, resume, or delete jobs on the Job status collection page.

• Administer groups of nodes for the job manager
  In a flexible management environment, we can create, modify, delete, and view groups of nodes. Groups of nodes make job submission simpler because we can submit a job for a group of nodes instead of a entering multiple node names for a job submission.

• Tune the job polling interval
  We can tune the polling interval that each deployment manager or administrative agent uses to poll the job manager for jobs. The default polling interval is 30 seconds. With a larger polling interval, the rate at which the deployment managers or administrative agent contact the job manager decreases, which alleviates high processor usage. With a lower polling interval, jobs start running sooner.

Related concepts

Job manager

Related tasks

Create management profiles for job managers

Administer jobs in a flexible management environment

manageprofiles command

Unregistering nodes of the administrative agent

Register or unregister with job manager settings

Enable security

startServer command

(zos) START command

ManagedNodeAgent (AdminTask)

registerNode command

deregisterNode command

stopServer command

(zos) STOP command

JobManagerUpkeep (AdminTask)

restoreJobManager command

JobManagerNode (AdminTask)

Related information:

System administration for WebSphere Application Server V7: Part 3: Administering a flexible management topology