ActiveBatch Job Scheduler Core Capabilities:
Job Scheduling & Event Automation:
Enterprises use of disparate and disconnected systems is increasing the costs and
impacting the service levels of IT in today's enterprise at a time when we are all
being asked to improve results with decreased resources. Today's challenging economic
environment demand improved automation results with a clear understanding of the
financial impact that Job Scheduling and Workflow Automation can have on IT and
the business.
ActiveBatch is a central point of scheduling that integrates applications, platforms
and databases into "end to end " workflows that improve service levels, eliminate
latency, reduce errors and is proven to
improve the bottom line.
Job Scheduling for Heterogeneous IT Environments:
ActiveBatch Enterprise Job Scheduling and IT Workload Automation is easy to use
to integrate workflows from different applications, databases as well as applications.
IT processing requires that workflows be supported in both real time as well as
batch and they must execute on more than a single system or platform. The 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 minimal operator interaction
and without experts using a Job Control Language to control the logic.
ActiveBatch Job Scheduling Scalability, Manageability and Integration:
ActiveBatch's scalable architecture is perfect for the enterprise as well as departments
or projects in that it scales from a single server to over 2000 servers, physical
or virtual, and has been tested to over
One Million jobs in a 24 hour period.
All at an affordable price point that is unmatched in the industry.
ActiveBatch supports the reliable execution of job and plans on a wide range of
current systems. Advanced Systems Concepts is regularly reviewing and talking with
our customers to add new platforms to better address specific customer requirements.
The supported platforms include:
- Microsoft Windows x86, x64 and Itanium Including Windows 7
- VMware and Microsoft's Hyper V
- Linux
- SuSe Linux
- IBM AIX
- IBM iSeries (OS 400)
- z/OS
|
- HP-UX
- HP Tru64 Unix
- HP NSK
- SCO UNIX
- Sun Solaris SPARC & x86
- OpenVMS
- Mac OS
- Virtual Machines
|
ActiveBatch is customer installable and incorporates many industry standards that
simplify its installation into your existing IT Infrastructure. ActiveBatch support
of a many Microsoft, Oracle, HP, IBM, Novell, 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 templated approach to simplify job design for:
- Process Job Types (e.g. scripts, exe's, etc.)
- File Transfers using FTP / SFTP / FTPS Jobs
- Email (SMTP including Authenticated SMTP)
- Script-Store the script content within ActiveBatch for improved access and control
- File Operations and
-
Built-in Jobs Library-custom templated job steps that range from Task Scheduler
to Database functions such as SSIS, Backup, to applications.
Built-In Jobs Library Reduces the Cost of Custom Script Development:
ActiveBatch Built-in Jobs Library utilizing re-useable "templates" offers a Scriptless
approach to creating and implementing "end to end" workflows for applications and
IT functions. The Built-in Jobs Library, included with each ActiveBatch Job Scheduler
system, provides true Business Process Automation by integrating and connecting
disparate applications, platforms, and functions.
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.
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 features complete support for Web Services at both the Job Step level
as well as through the Event system. A Job step can communicate with another web
services enabled application without having to write any script or other code. In
addition, web services events can be specified that can act as a triggering mechanism
to start ActiveBatch plans and jobs.
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:
Enterprise applications, such as ActiveBatch must provide a secure environment,
without additional costs for implementation and on-going support. ActiveBatch fully
utilizes the Microsoft security model including Kerberos and the use of Certificate
credentials. ActiveBatch fully supports Microsoft's Active Directory facilities
making your existing Windows accounts and groups available to ActiveBatch on day
one.
Audits: Addressing the Internal and External Requirements:
ActiveBatch's audit architecture provides details on the creation, modification,
triggering and more on each and every ActiveBatch object (e.g. Jobs, Plans, User
Accounts, etc.). The audit history is secure and modifications by users are stored
and can be visually compared to previous revisions so that "differences" are highlighted.
Revision Restore allows the developer to review and restore a previous version of
that object without requiring changes to be made individually. ActiveBatch will
then restore the object by issuing a new revision id. Revision Restore reduces errors
and simplifies development and testing.
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.
ActiveBatch use of Active Variables:
Variables are supported in a hierarchical fashion to allow job designers to easily
pass information between jobs. Populate variables from a constant or from a wide
variety of data sources. Data sources include SQL query, WMI's WQL query, XML file,
Registry and more.
Jobs can inherit plan variables and active variables may be used as a constraint.
Job, File, Resources and Variable Constraints for Improved Job Management Control:
ActiveBatch uses a series of constraints to control jobs, plans and the resultant
workflows for timely processing and improved success.
- 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.
ActiveBatch supports the use of Boolean logic so that these constraints may be used
individually or collectively to control the execution of work flows.
Event Automation for Improved Service Levels by removing Latency:
Event Driven Scheduling is important in today's 24 7 IT environments where achieving
Service Levels is critical in allowing business users to avoid downtime. The ActiveBatch
Architecture supports triggering of jobs and plans based on the exit status (Success
Failure, Conditional on a specified exit code, or on an ABORT) of a predecessor
workflow(s). The following events are included with ActiveBatch.
- 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 Exchange as well as POP-3.
- MSMQ Event Trigger "watches" an MSMQ queue and criteria for triggering a
workflow based on an inbound message.
- File Trigger Events can be set to occur when a file is created, modified,
deleted, or if it appears in a specified directory. Recursive sub-directories can
also be monitored.
- WMI Events include 15,000 hardware and software based events that Microsoft
provides that ActiveBatch recognizes to trigger workflows. An example would be writing
to the Event log.
- System Startup Events can be used to trigger workflows upon a reboot of a
system.
ActiveBatch also supports additional methods for triggering jobs, for example, based
on changes to the database or data interrogation of SQL Server or Oracle.
Date and Time Scheduling:
ActiveBatch Date and Time Scheduling allows for maximum flexibility using either
a Calendar or a Fiscal Year period in determining when and the frequency of job
execution. You can create granular scheduling by associating one or more schedules
with a job, or plan.
As business operates 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 menu and ActiveBatch will run that job or jobs
using the local time of the zone selected,
ActiveBatch is ideal for using scheduling that is patterned, for example every Tuesday
at 8:00 AM, the last weekday in a month at 9.17PM. Alternatively if your requirements
call for non-patterned dates such as run this job on May 6th and November 9th only
ActiveBatch has the solution. ActiveBatch allows you to specify Start/End and Interval
time(s) within the Schedule object.
Fiscal days and fiscal quarters can be specified (for example, last fiscal day,
etc). Using ActiveBatch's Date Arithmetic functions you can easily create Date Tags
like EOM (end of month) or BOQ+7 (seven days after the start of a new fiscal quarter)
that can be used in a schedule.
Business Calendar objects are available, for specifying non business days such as
Holidays, Weekends, etc. and they can be associated with any or all job or plans
so these objects can be excluded from execution. When an exclusionary date occurs
ActiveBatch runs the job on the Previous or Next day or will simply skip that run
date as established in the job or plan properties.
Customizable Alerts Using E-mail, BlackBerry (PDA), SNM:
Alerts can be raised to Operators, Administrators or any interested party by ActiveBatch
and are delivered via E-Mail, Pagers, Smartphone's, BlackBerry Devices, or written
to the Event Log.
Customizable Alerts allow a job designer the ability to "provide" the alert text
for any event action. Designers can specify their own text, including variable substitution,
as appropriate. SNMP traps are supported as an alert action.
In addition, other jobs may also be triggered from one of the alert conditions or
the Event Log can be written to on the Scheduler, Execution system or the Client
system.
ActiveBatch enterprise job scheduling software allows for alerts to be grouped into
Alert Objects using the various delivery types described above. Alert Objects group
together various alerts making it easier to make modifications or account changes
in personnel. Changing an alert object will affect all associated jobs or plans
that use that alert object.
Reporting Services:
ActiveBatch reporting supports the transactional database that comprises the executing
ActiveBatch system presenting information in a list format. Reports are easily configured
and offer sorting and date range flexibility.
Also provided is an ActiveBatch OLAP Reporting database as a separate high speed
database. A cube and series of built-in reports are available (in both SQL Server
Reporting and Crystal Reports) to report on data in both list and graphical form.
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 ActiveBatch Change Management system is included as a key technology of the
Job Scheduler and allows detailed comparisons between different Job Scheduler environments
(for example, development and QA or QA and production) for the purpose of migrating
changes from one Job Scheduler to another.
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).
Load Balancing and High Availability Fully Integrated Into ActiveBatch:
ActiveBatch Job Scheduling algorithms allow ActiveBatch to distribute jobs or plans
across an association of servers, referred to as a Generic Queue, based on one of
several algorithms that help to ensure that SLA's are achieved. A server failure
will result in the workload being divided across fewer system until the server can
be returned to the queue. As the numbers of jobs increase or the resource demands
grow new servers can be added to the Generic Queue without changing the jobs or
plans.
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, Clusters or an ActiveBatch's
Non Cluster failover add-in, to address your organizations specific requirements.
Monitoring Enterprise Applications:
ActiveBatch provides monitoring of key operational functions through its integrated
support of several of the industry's leading operations management solutions as
add-ins to the base product.
ActiveBatch Monitoring Solutions include:
- ActiveBatch Management Pack for Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager
- ActiveBatch Smart Plug-In for HP Operations Manager software for Windows
View ActiveBatch Job Scheduling and Event Scheduling Yourself:
Check out our Overview presentations or set up a one hour complete product
demonstration over the Web to address your automation requirements and learn
why the ActiveBatch job scheduler has become an industry leader for developing and
providing a robust feature set with a reduced cost of operations.
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