Job Scheduling Overview | ActiveBatch Job Scheduler
ActiveBatch Job Scheduler Core Capabilities:
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The ActiveBatch Integrated Jobs Library allows users to more easily author workflows that can pass data and manage dependencies across a range of platforms, applications and databases all from within a centralized automation and job scheduling system. As a result organizations can consolidate operations rather than managing their processes across multiple closed scheduling systems (e.g. Windows Task Scheduler, SQL Server Scheduler, Cron, etc.) thereby reducing the cost of operations and improving service levels.
ActiveBatch core capabilities includes event as well as date / time automation, alerting, analytic reporting, auditing, change management, version control and much more.
Please click on a capability below to expand and view the description:
- Microsoft Windows (x86, x64)
- VMware
- Microsoft's Hyper V
- Xen
- Linux (RedHat, Novell and SuSe)
- IBM AIX
- IBM iSeries (OS 400)
- IBM z/OS
- HP-UX
- HP Tru64 Unix
- HP NSK
- SCO UNIX
- Sun (Oracle) Solaris SPARC & x86
- OpenVMS (Alpha and Itanium)
- Mac OS
- Process Job Types (e.g. scripts, exe's, etc.)
- Script-Store the script content within ActiveBatch for improved access and control
- Integrated Jobs Library custom templated Job Steps that range from Database operations such as SSIS, DTS, Execute T-SQL/PL-SQL to Networking operations such as SFTP, FTPS, FTP, Hosted Exchange E-Mail, SMTP to Java/J2EEE operations to Web Services applications.
- SQL Query
- WMI WQL Query
- XML Xpath Query
- Date Arithmetic
- Web Services
- Registry
- File Constraints check the presence or absence of a file as well as other attributes including exclusivity, file size as well as Created, Modified and Last accessed times.
- Job Constraints execute jobs based on the completion or success of other jobs in the job scheduling stream or plan.
- Resource Constraints provide the ability to meter plan and job execution based on finite computing resources, licenses, etc.
- Time Constraints indicate scheduling periods when a job may or may not execute.
- Variable Constraints test one or more values from a data source such as SQL, WMI's WQL, etc, to determine whether those values meet the requirements.
- Interactive Constraints are used to pause a workflow and/or request additional information that can be manually entered.
- File Trigger Events are the most popular event triggers and can be set to occur when a file(s) is created, modified, deleted, or appears in a specified directory. Recursive sub-directories can also be monitored. When file triggers occur, files are verified for exclusivity. This avoids a premature trigger when the file may not actually be accessible.
- E-Mail Event Triggers allows for specifying several criteria for determining whether an inbound e-mail message should trigger an ActiveBatch object. E-Mail support includes both Microsoft Hosted Exchange as well as POP3.
- JMS Triggers allows you to specify a queue and/or topic to check for messages and filter criteria. The criteria can be message body and/or properties.
- MSMQ Event Trigger allows you to specify an MSMQ queue and criteria for determining whether an inbound message should trigger an ActiveBatch object.
- WMI Events include over 15,000 hardware and software based events that Microsoft (and third-party providers) provides that ActiveBatch recognizes to trigger workflows. One example would be writing to the Windows Event log.
- System Startup Events can be used to trigger workflows upon a reboot of a system.
- Web Services Triggers allow you to specify a Web Services trigger. The triggering mechanism creates an "endpoint" in which you can subscribe to other Web Services events. When the event occurs, the endpoint receives the Web Services message which is decomposed into ActiveBatch variables that can be used for various processing.
- Social Media Triggers support Twitter and Growl events. For example, this means you could trigger a workflow based on a Twitter message.
- Oracle Database Triggers support the modification of a table via an Insert, Update or Delete operation in a seamless and transparent mechanism in which the data being entered or updated can trigger a workflow. (separately licensed).
- ActiveBatch Management Pack for Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager, this Microsoft certified pack, provides seamless monitoring of ActiveBatch services and objects on all SCOM supported systems running ActiveBatch. In addition, ActiveBatch supports several Job Steps that enable/disable maintenance mode for any supported SCOM objects.
- ActiveBatch Smart Plug-In for HP Operations Manager software for Windows.
- ActiveBatch support SNMP and Windows Event Log update which can be used with many third-party monitoring systems as the source of alert information concerning critical or important jobs.
-Job Scheduling & Event Automation:
+ ActiveBatch Job Scheduling Scalability, Manageability and Integration:
IT processing requires that workflows be supported in both "near" real time as well as in batch mode and they must execute on more than a single system or platform. Workflows can be triggered, for timely operations when all elements of a plan are in place for processing, by events, or using a date/time schedule with no (or minimal) operator interaction and without experts using a Job Control Language or script to control the logic. As part of this, ActiveBatch supports the reliable execution of job and plans on a wide range of systems. The supported platforms include (this list is representative and not exhaustive):
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ActiveBatch is customer installable and incorporates many industry standards that simplify its installation into your existing IT Infrastructure. ActiveBatch support of many Microsoft, Oracle, HP, IBM, RedHat, Novell, SuSe, SCO, UNIX, VMware and other technologies allow for organizational standards to provide the best balance in achieving a reduced learning curve and improved financial performance for the enterprise.
ActiveBatch is script language independent and supports a wide range of job types that includes a built-in approach to simplify job design for:
Database Job Steps
Database Job Steps support the following types of operations: Execute T-SQL, PL-SQL, SSIS, DTS, Execute SQL Server Jobs, Execute Oracle Jobs, Backup and many others. All of the database Job Steps feature property assistance helpers (for example, when creating a SQL Server Job step, you can browse the SQL Server machines easily and then select an existing SQL Server job).Messaging
Microsoft Hosted Exchange is supported for sending e-mails as well as Event Trigger capability. Both Exchange and SMTP E-Mail support authenticated e-mail. Java Messaging Service (JMS) is supported and allows both Queue and Topic use as well as Property and Message Body capability. JMS is also supported within the Event Trigger framework. Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) is also supported.Java/J2EEE/JMX
Java and JMX Job Steps allow method execution without requiring a Java applet. JMX properties can be used within the Event Trigger framework.Social Media
This series of Job Steps supports Twitter and Growl usage. For example, you can send and receive Twitter messages which might be used to alert end-users and/or trigger workloads.Power Management
Job steps that support the Suspend/Hibernate of physical machines as well as the "Wake-on-LAN" allow for conservation of electricity and other consumable resources when systems are not scheduled for any job execution.Certificates/OpenPGP
Job steps that support the creation and maintenance of SSL Certificates. OpenPGP support provides the completion creation and maintenance of OpenPGP Key Rings as well as built-in encryption and decryption of file data.Reporting
Crystal Report (Server and local), SQL Server Reporting capabilities.Symantec Back-Up Exec
You can now perform Backup and Restore operations accessing the Symantec Back-up Exec product.ActiveBatch (Import Change-set)
This job step allows you to schedule a Change Management approved configuration change-set. See "Change Management" facility below for more information on this new facility.
+ The ActiveBatch Integrated Jobs Library - Reducing the Cost of Custom Script Development:
The Graphical Jobs Editor is used to create workflows from the templated Job Steps by simply a drag-and-drop of a Job Step function from the palette of Job Steps. Tool tips and examples allow for every easy creation of Job Steps. For example, loading an SSIS Package nested Job Steps are now visually shown.
Job steps can have "helper" dropdowns that allow for browsing or the selection of a target object rather than having to type the object specification.
+ Web Services Integration for Reusability:
ActiveBatch allows for reusability by supporting the creation of a Service Library where any internal or externally developed WSDL, can be loaded, and used as part of your workflow.
Web Services security support includes certificate, user credential authentication, HTTP Digest Authentication, Integrated Windows Security and other security mechanisms also employed by Web Services.
+ ActiveBatch Security:
+ Audits: Addressing the Internal and External Requirements:
ActiveBatch provides for improved "compliance and control" of objects through its support of customized audit fields that can either be made optional or mandatory to address the specific requirements of auditors.
Finally, a Notification pane allows users to observe audits in real-time. This capability complements the alert facilities of the product through a real-time portal into the audit system. Critical or important audits can be alerted through numerous actions including the use of the built-in Alerts View which allows those alerts to require operator acknowledgement and/or action.
+ ActiveBatch use of Active Variables:
Constant variables are based on a numeric or string constant value. Active Variables are based on a data source in which the value is derived from the source. Active Variables support a wide variety of data sources, for example:
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Variables can also be exported to running jobs via the "Export as an Environment Variable" property.
+ Job, File, Resources and Variable Constraints for Improved Job Management Control:
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The constraints mentioned may be combined and used in an expression. The expression can use many operators to ultimately determine whether the expression equates to a Boolean True ("constraints met") or False ("constraints failed").
+ Event Automation for Improved Service Levels by removing Latency:
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ActiveBatch also supports other event triggering mechanisms such as VMware (separately licensed).
+ Date and Time Scheduling:
Patterned scheduling might be, for example, every Tuesday at 8:00 AM or the last weekday in a month at 9.17PM. Alternatively if your requirements call for non-patterned date/times such as run this job on May 6th at 7:15am and November 9th at 9:22pm ActiveBatch supports this type of scheduling as well. Moreover, ActiveBatch supports a custom user-specified calendar is which specific dates (patterned or non-patterned) can be specified in a point-and-click fashion.
As businesses operate globally across time zones, many jobs are required to run using the local time rather than the time zone used by the scheduler. With ActiveBatch simply select the appropriate time zone from a dropdown menu and ActiveBatch will run that job or jobs using the local time of the zone selected.
ActiveBatch also supports the concept of Business Days. The Calendar object allows you to specify non-working days (for example, typically a weekend like Saturday and Sunday) as well as observed Holidays. Holidays can be specified using two methods: Absolute and Self-Relative. When a holiday occurs on a job associated with one or more Business Calendars, the author can indicate whether the job instance should be skipped, run on the previous business day or run on the next business day.
+ Customizable Alerts Using E-mail, Smart Phones and SNMP:
Alerts can be customized and the "alert text" changed depending on the company and/or local language in use. Designers can specify their own text, including variable substitution, as appropriate. SNMP traps are supported as an alert action which allows easy interface to most third-party monitoring solutions. In addition, an alert action can be used to trigger one or more objects depending on the alert conditions.
Alert objects are another form of reusability that ActiveBatch supports. One or more plans or jobs can be associated to one or more Alert objects.
+ Reporting Services and OLAP:
The preferred approach to ActiveBatch reporting is through the high performance OLAP Reporting system. The OLAP system consists of a cube (which is fully documented) and more than two dozen reports (which are available using SQL Server Reporting, Crystal Reports and Oracle Answers) that report on various data in list, graphical and trend forms. ActiveBatch OLAP Reporting database is separate from the transaction scheduling database and so report generation does not impact scheduling. An ActiveBatch ETL job is run nightly (the schedule can be customized) to extract previous instance data from the transactional to the OLAP database.
+ Change Management:
The Change Management system provides a graphical interface for detecting object differences and then indicating what level of synchronization should be performed.
Objects that are migrating from one environment to another also support transformations in which "environment" required changes can also be applied to the migrating object (for example, imposing new security or other environment based property changes).
ActiveBatch provides a job step that allows automation of the approved Change Management modifications (for example, a job could be scheduled at updates a production system at an approved time).
+ Load Balancing and High Availability Fully Integrated Into ActiveBatch:
ActiveBatch, supports the concept of check-pointing and allows for the restarting of the instance from its last good checkpoint, helping to ensure on time completion.
ActiveBatch supports several High Availability options. To support Job Scheduler high availability we support Microsoft or Symantec Clusters or you can use the ActiveBatch Non Cluster Failover add-in and avoid the necessity of a clustering solution. For Execution machine high availability, the use of Generic Queues which support multiple servers that are configured to handle the same job load can be used. In the event a machine fails, the remaining machines will take up the load.
+ Monitoring Enterprise Applications:
ActiveBatch Monitoring Solutions include:
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