What's new in Advanced Job Scheduler for V5R4

 

Several enhancements have been made to the Advanced Job Scheduler.

Add multiple commands to a scheduled task

• A command list is a stored set of instructions that Advanced Job Scheduler uses to process Management Central jobs. You can now add a series of commands to the scheduled Management Central task and control the run sequence of these commands. In the past you could only schedule one Management Central task (you could schedule one job to collect inventory, then another job to install fixes, and another one to run commands). Now you can create one Advanced Job Scheduler job that does all those activities.

  When scheduling a task, you have the option to create a new scheduled job, create a new scheduled job based on an existing scheduled job, or add the task to an existing job. CL commands can also be added to Management Central scheduled tasks. For instance, to delay the job between tasks you can use the Delay Job (DLYJOB) command.

  Tasks are processed on the endpoint system that was selected when the task was created. However, all CL commands are processed on the Central system. Each task must complete before the next task or CL command in the list will process.

  After you click the Schedule button for a Management Central task, the next window prompts you to specify whether you want to create a new job, create a new job based on another job, or add to an existing job.

  The Command field is located on the Scheduled Job Properties - General window. (My Connections > server > Work Management > Advanced Job Scheduler > Scheduled Jobs > Right-click a job > Properties)

Notification Banner control

• When you distribute spooled files by using Report Distribution, you can now choose from a list of items and have them print in a large font on the banner page of the new spooled file. The default items are Job name and Spooled file name. You can select up to 2 banner items to print large.

  The Available banner items field is located on the Notification Properties window. (My Connections > server > Work Management > Advanced Job Scheduler > Right-click Notification > Properties)

Add send e-mail menu option on system

• This new menu option allows you to use the Advanced Job Scheduler to send an e-mail. When you select this menu item, the New E-Mail Message window appears. This is the same window that appears when you click My Connections > server > Work Management > Advanced Job Scheduler > Notifications > Right-click E-mail > New E-mail.

  My Connections > Right-click a server > Send e-mail via AJS

Distribute reports via the Basic Operations container

• The Distribute Reports window provides you with a place to manually distribute spooled files that are generated by a user job that is using a report distribution list. The job can be a job started by Advanced Job Scheduler or manually by a user. You will be prompted for a Report Distribution List. The Report Distribution List is a list of spooled files and the recipients to whom the spooled files will be delivered.

  My Connections > server > Basic Operations > Jobs > Right-click a job > Distribute Reports

Availability schedule for e-mail recipients

• The availability schedule is the schedule for which the recipient is available to receive notification messages. You can select Always available, blank (never available) or a schedule option that was previously defined in the Advanced Job Scheduler - Schedules properties window.

  The Availability schedule field is located on the Recipient Properties - Email window. (My Connections > server > Work Management > Advanced Job Scheduler > Notifications > Recipients > Right-click a recipient name > Properties)

Work Flow Manager

• The Work Flow Manager is a new tool that lets you define units of work that can consist of a combination of automated and manual steps. The units of work can then be scheduled or started manually. With various notification check points, users can be notified when steps have started, completed, did not run by a specific time, and exceeded the run limit. Each step may have predecessor and successor jobs. Predecessor jobs for a step must complete before the step can be automatically or manually completed. After a step has completed, successor jobs are set to run. It is common to specify predecessor jobs that are the same as the successor jobs of the previous step. This causes the step to wait until the jobs complete before notifying of the step's completion.

  A good candidate for using the Advanced Job Scheduler Work Flow Manager is payroll processing. The payroll process consists of manual steps such as inputting time cards, validating reports, and printing and disbursing checks. The automatic steps can clear the batch work files, process time card input, run the payroll updates, and create the reports and checks.

  My Connections > server > Work Management > Advanced Job Scheduler > Work Flow Manager

Integrated file system Object Resource Dependency

• The Resource Dependencies window displays information about a specific job’s resource dependencies, including a list of dependencies, the requirements needed before continuing to run a job, and the time to wait before resetting a job, as well as allows you to add, remove, or view the properties of a particular resource dependency. New to V5R4 you can indicate if this dependency object is an integrated file system and specify the path.

  My Connections > server > Work Management > Advanced Job Scheduler > Scheduled Jobs > Right Click a job > Resource Dependencies > Create a new dependency type object

Page Selection for notification spool file attachments

• Page Selection allows you to specify selection information based on text and its location within each page of a spooled file. You can specify that the text must exist at a specific location on each page or anywhere on the page. You can also subset the spooled file by selecting a page range.

  The Page Selection function can be found at My Connections > server > Work Management > Advanced Job Scheduler > Notification > Report Distribution List > Right-click a list > Properties > Click a spooled file > Click Properties

Add option to not reset held jobs

• Currently there is a possible performance impact when jobs that are scheduled to run periodically are held. Each time the scheduled date and time is reached for a held job, the Advanced Job Scheduler server job determines if the job is still held, and if so, calculates the next date and time the held job should run. New for V5R4, you can suppress this calculation by making sure that the Reset held jobs field is unchecked. When the Reset held jobs field is unchecked, the next time the date and time is reached for a held job, the scheduled date and time fields are cleared, and no further processing activity is triggered on the held job. When you release the job, the server then calculates the next date and time the job should run. Using the Reset held jobs field applies to all jobs defined using the Advanced Job Scheduler.

  The Reset held jobs field is located on the Advanced Job Scheduler Properties - General window. (My Connections > server > Work Management > Right-click Advanced Job Scheduler > Properties)

 

Parent topic:

Scheduling jobs with Advanced Job Scheduler