Reducing "Wait" Time In Operations:
The ActiveBatch
® Job Scheduler incorporates an
event driven architecture that supports the triggering of jobs and job plans based
upon a wide array of event types to address business and IT specific requirements.
The ActiveBatch event-driven architecture allows organizations to respond quickly
to support the requirements of the business. As a result workflows can be designed
to ensure that processes can be initiated when specific business or IT events occur
saving time and reducing costs.
The ActiveBatch Event architecture supports a wide range of events across many platform
and application types. The following are a list of supported ActiveBatch Event triggers:
- Email's (Inclusive or Exclusive words, Subject Line, Sender, etc)
- File Events (creation, modification, deletion or appearance)
- Growl
- SNMP Trapping
- Completion Status of Predecessor Jobs and Plans (Success, Failure or Conditional)
- JMS / JMX Events
- Microsoft Message Queue's(MSMQ)
- System Startup
- Twitter
- Web Services
- Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to include over 15,000 event types including
events like writing to the Event and Application Logs
- Oracle Database Triggers*
- SAP Events*
- VMware*
The Job Scheduler monitors the various system for events that the automation designer
has incorporated into their jobs or job plans so workflows can begin execution once
the event is declared. Events can be calls to a Web service, the receipt of a message
such as an email, file drop, message queue, and so on. They can be triggered by
network events, WMI events, and a variety of other triggers. Once received, the
plan begins execution unless a counterbalancing constraint is encountered. This
permits the automation designer the ability to create a very responsive, interactive
Plan, or Workflow.
ActiveBatch supports File Triggering on both Microsoft Windows as well as Non Windows
systems upon the creation, modification, appearance or deletion of a specific file.
Email triggers allow for initiating a workflow on inclusive or exclusive words,
strings, attachments or other values, that will allow a defined email to trigger
a workflow. The email attachment can then be saved as a file for downstream processing.
Using email triggers workflows can be initiated immediately thereby reducing wait
time and making results of the workflow available for consideration for improved
decision making.
ActiveBatch supports the triggering of Plans and/or Jobs through a non-invasive
Oracle Database Event facility, which is separately licensed. This facility will
allow a customer to specify an event when an Oracle table is changed through an
Insert, Update or Delete. The operation can be further refined based on the specification
of table fields that can be specified as part of the event specification.
With ActiveBatch Intelligent Automation the Job Scheduler supports the concept of
an expected run window that can be monitored by users and operations using the Daily
Activity view. Additionally alerts, via the Global Alert Object facility, can be
created to notify individuals or groups that a workflow is waiting on an event to
initiate an action. The bottom line is that ActiveBatch helps IT to leverage the
business unit through improved service levels.
Additionally, ActiveBatch interrogates data by using Active Variables that can be
used as an alternative approach to an event based job trigger. Within ActiveBatch,
Active Variables can be used between jobs so that data is passed throughout the
business process. Some examples of Active Variables include:
- Date Expression
- File Contents
- SQL Record Set
- Web Service Request Result
- WMI Query
- XML Query
- File System Information
In addition to ActiveBatch's event based capabilities, ActiveBatch incorporates
the most granular date and time based scheduling along with including calendar or
fiscal year dates as well as the use of time zone's, custom tags for triggering
jobs, for example, three days before or after the End of Quarter <EOQ + 3>.
