Activation of Networks or Jobs

Activating a job network or job means preparing it for execution. On activation, the following is performed:

  • The definitions of jobs, networks, logical conditions, symbol tables etc. are copied to the Entire Operations active database and assigned a unique run number;

  • If necessary, symbol prompting is requested (see also Symbol Prompting during Network or Job Activation). However, symbol prompting is not performed for any subnetworks.

  • The global activation exit user exit is invoked, if defined in the Entire Operations defaults;

  • The JCL defined for jobs within the network is copied to the active JCL storage on the active database;

  • Variables (symbols) used in dynamically generated JCL are substituted by their current values. This does not apply to variables defined to be substituted at job submission time;

  • The JCL definitions of active job networks, respectively of active jobs, can differ from the JCL definitions in the master definition. To allow this, the corresponding symbol tables must contain certain reserved symbols on activation. See also Predefined Symbols in the section Symbol Table and Symbol Maintenance.

  • If you use pre-generated JCL, symbol replacement is performed at the time of JCL generation.

  • The Entire Operations Monitor recognizes the job network as active and checks time frames, input conditions and resources defined for the jobs. If all prerequisites for any jobs are fulfilled, these jobs are submitted.

This document covers the following topics:

Related Topics:


Terminology

In this documentation and on the user interface, the terms activation and network start/job start are used.

  • Activation
    denotes the process of creating an active copy of a network or job definition.

  • Network start/job start
    denotes the actual execution start time of the activated/active job network or job.

Manual Activation

It is also possible to activate a job network manually irrespective of any defined schedule. This may become necessary for a number of reasons, for example:

  • No schedule has been defined for the job network;

  • To override defined activation date and time;

  • The job network is not scheduled for the required date.

For details, see Activating a Job Network Manually.

Job network or job activation can also be triggered by any event within Entire Operations, for example by the termination of another job network or by the Entire Operations Application Programming Interface (API); see also API Routines. Like manual activation, this can be performed at any time.

Symbol prompting for active symbols is also performed, when a job or network is activated manually, if at least one symbol of a symbol table used by the job or network is appropriately marked.

graphics/overview_network_activation.png

Automatic (Scheduled) Activation

Job networks are activated automatically in two steps:

  • At the beginning of a new day or during Monitor startup, all schedules are checked for job networks to be executed during that day. This process is called schedule extraction and the data extracted are called the activation trigger records.

  • The activation trigger records force job network activation a short time before the earliest start of the network. This time span can be defined in the Entire Operations defaults: see the Extraction of schedules before activation option described in Defaults for Time Ranges in the Administration documentation.

Notes:

  1. If no earliest start time is defined on the network level, the network is activated immediately after schedule extraction.
  2. The modification of a calendar or schedule always triggers a schedule extraction for the dependent job networks. For this reason, a job network could be activated even for the current day after such a modification.

Automatic Activation - Symbol Prompting

After the creation of an activation trigger record, active symbol tables are created for the specific network run. If there is at least one symbol marked as to be prompted within these active tables, a symbol prompting request is sent to the mailboxes of all users defined as message recipients for that network.

The network activation is kept in hold, until any user sees the request and enters or confirms the symbols to be prompted. For this reason, schedule extraction can be performed several days in advance. (See Global Schedule Extraction in the section Special Functions in the Administration documentation.)

Start of Job Activation

  1. If the calculated latest start is after the calculated deadline, the last start will be set 1 minute before the deadline.

  2. If the (new) latest start is before the earliest start, the job activation will be aborted with an error message.

Run Number

Entire Operations automatically assigns a run number to each active copy of a job network on the active database. This run number uniquely identifies the active copy of a job network and is automatically passed to its jobs, input conditions, etc.

The run number is assigned:

  • During the creation of an activation trigger record;

  • During a manual activation;

  • If a network is activated by an API routine.

Run numbers are in the range 1 to 99999 by default and are unique on network level. When the maximum run number has been reached, assignment again starts from 1.

The upper limit for run numbers can be modified in the Entire Operations defaults as described in Defaults for Network Options in the Administration documentation.

The assignment of a run number to each activation of a job network allows multiple activations of a job network on the same date, and allows you to distinguish between multiple active copies of the same job network.

Note:
There is no guarantee that subsequent activations will have ascending run numbers. They are as unpredictable as operating system job numbers. Entire Operations retains the last run number, even for deleted job networks. If you define a new job network of the same name, the new run numbers start from the deleted network's last run number incremented by 1.

When manually activating a job or a network, you can specify a preferred run number to be used for the next run (see also Activating a Job Network Manually and Activating a Single Job Manually.

Related Topics:

Cleanup of the Active Database

The operative data of Entire Operations must be removed again from the active database after a certain time. Part of this process is the removal of work files as well, which Entire Operations has created in the file system for job control purposes.

  • The retention periods for active objects can be defined (see Administration) documentation.

  • The cleanup may be defined to be carried out automatically every day. If no time is defined for the cleanup, then it will be started at 00:00. A time for the daily cleanup start can be defined. For a more detailed description, see Administration documentation.

  • The cleanup of the active database can also be started manually any time (see Cleanup of the Active Database in the Administration documentation).

  • Furthermore, it is possible to run the cleanup of the active database in a Natural batch job (see Cleanup of the Active Database in Batch Mode) exterior to the Entire Operations Monitor. The cleanup in batch mode can be executed with the Monitor running or shut down.

Note that the cleanup of the active database depending upon the data quantity to be processed affects the system. It is recommended to schedule the cleanup for silent times.

Cleanup runs can also be performed several times a day. This makes it possible to reduce the volumes to be processed per run.

Deleting Work Files

Entire Operations creates files in the operating system under BS2000, UNIX and Windows. Among other things, they contain the job SYSOUT or the JCL to be executed.

During the deactivation of active jobs, which have run in one of these operating systems, the assigned work files are deleted as well.

All definitions are created in the Entire Operations Defaults. They are described in the Administration documentation.

Cleanup of the Active Database in Batch Mode

In addition to an automatic cleanup, or alternatively, you can also do a cleanup of the active database in batch mode outside of the Entire Operations Monitor.

Use a Natural batch job with the following commands:

LOGON SYSEOR
CLEAN function log-target 
FIN

Parameter for CLEAN

Parameter Description
function Possible values:
ALL Cleanup, deactivation, deletion of work files.
CLEAN Cleanup only.
DEACT Deactivation, deletion of work files only.
log-target Possible values:
NOP The cleanup is logged in the Entire Operations log.
SO The cleanup is logged in the SYSOUT of the batch job.

In addition, the start and end messages of the cleanup are logged in the Entire Operations log.

ALL The cleanup is both logged in the Entire Operations log and the SYSOUT of the batch job.

The batch cleanup can take place with the Monitor running or not. It is recommended to do the cleanup at times of low Monitor utilization.

Like the automatic cleanup the batch cleanup should be performed at least once a day. Several runs a day are possible. This may be useful to reduce the data amount of each cleanup run.

The Entire Operations retention periods also apply to batch cleanup.

Example of CLEAN

CLEAN ALL SO

Complete cleanup and log into SYSOUT.

Cleanup of Mailbox Messages to SYSDBA

The cleanup of mailbox messages to SYSDBA can be executed in batch mode. To do this, use a Natural batch job including the following commands:

LOGON SYSEOR
MX-DEL1P yyyymmdd hhiiss
FIN

Parameter for MX-DEL1P

Parameter Description
yyyymmdd Day up to which cleanup is to take place.
hhiiss Time up to which cleanup is to take place.

Example of MX-DEL1P

MX-DEL1P 20020201 100000