Oracle Enterprise Manager Administrator's Guide

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Job Scheduling

Job Scheduling Process
Job Window
Job Menu
Creating, Modifying, or Viewing a Job

The Job Scheduling services allow you to automate standard and repetitive tasks, such as executing a SQL script or executing an operating system command. With the Job system, you can create and manage jobs, schedule execution of jobs, and view information about the jobs. Jobs can be scheduled on a single node or multiple nodes in the network, provided that the node has an intelligent agent running on it. The topics discussed in this chapter include:

Job Scheduling Process

The Job scheduling process includes:

Creating a job. This involves:
Saving and modifying a job, if desired.
Submitting a job to the Job system.
Viewing the job history to review the results of the job.

Job Tasks

The Job system provides a variety of pre-defined job tasks, or you can submit your own tasks by executing a SQL*Plus script or running an operating system program. Job tasks are implemented in the Tool Command Language (Tcl) scripts with Oracle extensions (OraTcl) to include database specific commands. For more information on custom job scripts, see the Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Developer's Guide.

The tasks are grouped by the destination of the task:

Databases, which also include Node tasks
Name Servers, which also include Node tasks
Nodes
Listeners, which also include Node tasks

The tasks allow you to:

Execute operating system commands or shell scripts.
Execute SQL and DBA scripts.
Perform database administration tasks including, starting up and shutting down Oracle databases.
Start up and shut down SQL*Net Listeners.
Distribute and install software.

For information on predefined job tasks and their parameters, see the online help for predefined job tasks.

You can combine two or more pre-defined tasks into one job, called a composite job. Composite jobs can contain test conditions based on the success of a task. For example, if a composite job consists of two tasks, starting up a database and then running a SQL script, you can specify that the script be run only if the database was successfully started.

You can create jobs that can be used as fixit jobs for event conditions that are monitored with the Event Management System. Fixit jobs cannot be scheduled. See Chapter 5, Event Management for information on monitoring events in the system.

Note:
You need to set up a password file to perform administration tasks, such as start up or shut down, on a remote database. See Administration of a Remote Database on page 1-15.

Job Credentials

Jobs are normally run with the user preferences of the administrator who submitted the job. This means that jobs cannot be used to perform functions the administrator could not perform if logged into the machine directly.

Because jobs are categorized by the type of service they act on, the job system knows what credentials to pass to the agent. If the job runs on a node, the job system passes either the user preferences for the node or, if none are specified, your Console username and password. If the job runs on a service, such as a database, the job system also passes the user preferences for the service. For information on user preferences, see Console User Preferences on page 1-19.

Submitting Jobs

The Job system is simple to use because the task of scheduling and managing jobs is centralized in the Enterprise Manager Console. The administrator only needs to submit a job once, regardless of the number of destinations on which the job will run or the number of times the job will be run.

When you submit a job, the Console's daemon process sends the job information to the appropriate intelligent agents on the destinations you selected. The agents are responsible for executing the job on schedule and returning job status messages back to the daemon.

Note:
There is usually a slight delay between the submitting the job and the notification by the agent.

To schedule a job, you do not have to connect to the node on which the job will be run. You only need to submit the job to the Console and specify the destinations on which it should run. The destinations can include nodes, databases, listeners, names servers, and user-defined groups that have been created with the Map system.

Note:
Jobs can only be run on nodes where an intelligent agent is running. If you send a job to a group, the job is only scheduled on the nodes in the group where the agent is running.

The Job system of Enterprise Manager allows you to efficiently run jobs on multiple remote nodes by transferring job information to the agents servicing the nodes. When a job is executed, it is run by the agent on that node, thus minimizing network traffic between the remote node and the Console and communication daemon. In addition, jobs can be run on multiple nodes simultaneously because there is an intelligent agent residing on each node.

When you submit a job to one or more remote sites, it is possible that any one of those site may be down. If a site or its agent is down, the communication daemon queues any job requests that could not be delivered to the site. Once the site can be contacted, the daemon submits the queued job to the agent.

Job Window

You can view the different pages of job information by selecting the page tabs in the Job window. The pages in the Job window are:

Active Jobs
Job History
Job Library

You can switch between the pages by clicking on the tab of each page. The rows in both pages can be sorted on any column by clicking on the column heading.

The Job window can be hidden or shown by selecting Job in the Console View menu. You can also hide or show the window by clicking on the Job system icon in the Console toolbar.

See Figure 4-1: Job Window in the Console for an illustration of the Job Scheduling window.

Figure 4-1: Job Window in the Console

Active Jobs

The Active Jobs page contains a summary of the active jobs on the network. These are jobs that you have submitted to the job system and are not yet completed. Each row is an execution of a particular job scheduled on a specific destination. While a job may execute multiple times, the job listed in the Active Jobs page is the one that is currently scheduled or running. You can use the Show Details menu option to display the details of the selected job. You cannot modify these jobs.

Note:
You can double-click on a job listed in the Active Jobs page to view the job details.

Job type is determined by an icon at the left of each row.
Job Name is the name of the job.
Status of job is one of the following:
Destination of the job.
Next Execution Time of the job. A fixit job cannot be scheduled and displays Unknown for the next execution time.

Job History

Job History contains a list of previous job activities, such as multiple executions of a job. These are jobs that have been submitted to an agent and have executed successfully or unsuccessfully. This page also lists deleted jobs. You cannot modify these jobs.

Job type is determined by an icon at the left of each row. These icons are the same as the Active Jobs page. See Active Jobs on page 4-5.
Job Name is the name of the job.
Destination of the job.
Status of job is one of the following:
For the other status categories, see Active Jobs on page 4-5.
Execution Start Time is the time when the job started or was deleted. Because the order of agent notifications may vary, it is possible that the Console receives a completed or failed notification before a running notification. If this happens, the start time displays Unknown.
Execution End Time is the time when the job finished, failed, or was deleted.

Note:
You can double-click on a job listed in the Job History page to display the Job property sheet and view the Job Output dialog box, if output exists for the job. If no output is produced by a job, a message displays that states that there is no output for the job. If the output includes only blank spaces, the dialog box is blank.

Saving Job History

You can save the jobs from the Job History page to a text file and clear the jobs from the Job History window. This prevents the Job History page from being overloaded with obsolete jobs that occurred in previous days.

Job Library

Job Library contains a list of the jobs that you have created and saved. These jobs can be submitted to the job system at a later date. This is useful if you want to submit the same job at different times. You can use the Modify Saved Job menu option to modify a job selected in this page.

Job Name is the name of the job.
Job Description is the user supplied description of the job.

Note:
You can double-click on a job listed in the Job Library page to modify the job.

Job Menu

The Job menu allows you to create, modify, save, submit, and manage jobs. The menu options are enabled depending on the items selected in the Job window. See Figure 4-1: Job Window in the Console for an illustration of the Job menu.

Note:
When you submit or delete a job, there is usually a slight delay while the agent processes the request.

Create Job
Allows you to create a new job. See Creating, Modifying, or Viewing a Job on page 4-9.

Show Details
Displays the property sheet for the selected job in the Active Jobs page of the Job window. The property sheet is in read-only format. Active jobs can be removed but not modified. See Creating, Modifying, or Viewing a Job on page 4-9.

Remove Job
Removes the selected job from the Active Jobs page of the Job window. If you experience problems removing a job, see the Delete option of the Daemon Manager Menu on page 6-10.

Save History
Saves the contents of the Job History page to a text file. Enter a valid file name or select an existing file in the file selection dialog box.

Print History
Prints the jobs listed in the Job History page.

Clear History
Clears the jobs listed in the Job History page.

Modify Saved Job
Allows you to modify the job selected in the Job Library page of the Job window. The property sheet is the same as the property sheet for creating a new job. See Creating, Modifying, or Viewing a Job on page 4-9.

Submit Saved Job
Submits the selected saved job to the Job system.

Context-Sensitive Menus

If you select an item in the Job window with the right mouse button, the context-sensitive menu for that item appears. This menu is a subset of the Job menu.

Creating, Modifying, or Viewing a Job

When you create, modify, or view details of a job, similar property sheets display. The contents of the Create Job and Job Details property sheets are nearly identical. See Figure 4-2: Job Property Sheet for an illustration of a Job property sheet. The property sheets contains:

General Page
Task Page
Parameters Page
Schedule Page
Progress Page (Show Details only)

Attention:
When submitting a job that consists of multiple tasks, an error may occur if the string of arguments that was sent is longer than the internal buffer. If that error occurs when submitting a job, divide the tasks among multiple jobs and resubmit the jobs.

Creating a New Job

To create a new job:

Select Create Job from the Job menu to display the Create Job property sheet.

2.

Complete the pages of the Create Job property sheet.

3.

Determine whether the job is ready to submit.

a.: Click on the Submit button to submit the job to the agents at the selected destinations. The job appears in the Active Jobs window.
b.: Click on the Save button to save the job. The job appears in the Job Library window. You can modify or submit a saved job at a later time.

Note:
There is usually a slight delay between the submitting the job and the notification by the agent.

Modifying a Saved Job

To modify a saved job:

Note:
Only saved jobs that are in the Job Library page of the Job window can be modified. Submitted jobs in the Active Jobs window cannot be modified.

Select a saved job in the Job Library page of the Job window.

2.

Select Modify Saved Job from the Job menu to display the Job Details property sheet.

3.

Update the pages of the Job Details property sheet.

4.

Determine whether the job is ready to submit.

a.: Click on the Submit button to submit the job to the agents at the selected destinations. The job appears in the Active Jobs window.
b.: Click on the Save button to save the job. The job appears in the Job Library window. You can modify or submit a saved job at a later time.

Viewing Job Details

To view the details of a job:

Select a job in the Active Jobs page of the Job window.
Select Show Details from the Job menu to display the Job Details property sheet.
View the pages of the Job Details property sheet. This property sheet cannot be modified.

General Page

The General page allows you to determine job name, description, type, fixit job status, and destinations.

Job Name
Enter the name of the new job.

Description
Enter the description of the job.

Fixit Job
Check this box if you want to use this job as fixit job to correct an event condition. The fixit job must be submitted to the destination where the event is being monitored. A fixit job cannot be scheduled.

The job can be selected from the Fixit Job list in the Event Set Management Parameters page after it has been successfully submitted to an agent. See Creating or Modifying an Event Set on page 5-13.

Destination Type
Select the destination type from the pull-down list: Database, Listener, Node, or Names Server.

Job destinations
Select the destinations of the job in the Available Destinations list and click the << (Add) button to move the destination to the Selected Destinations list.

The destinations are determined by the Job Type. The destinations include databases, listeners, nodes, names servers, and groups of these objects.

Figure 4-2: Job Property Sheet

Task Page

The Task page allows you to choose the tasks that you want the job to perform.

Available Tasks
Select a task and click on the << (Add) button to include the task in the job. You can add multiple tasks to the job from the Available Tasks scrolling list.

Note:
For information on predefined job tasks and their parameters, see the online help for predefined job tasks.

Selected Tasks
You can remove tasks from this list. Select the task and click on the >> (Remove) button.

Parameters Page

On the Parameters Page, you specify parameter settings for the selected job tasks. To set the parameters for a task, select the task in the Selected Tasks list. The parameters for the selected task are displayed on the right side of the Parameters Page.

Selected Tasks
Select the task that you want to set parameters for.

Task Parameters
Specify the parameters for the selected task. You can enter values in the entry boxes or select values from the pull-down lists. The parameters vary according to the job task.

Note:
For information on predefined job tasks and their parameters, see the online help for predefined job tasks.

For some jobs, you can override the preferred credentials for connecting to the service. This allows you to enter a username and password. For information on user preferences, see Console User Preferences on page 1-19.

Schedule Page

The Schedule page allows you to schedule the execution of the job task.

Execute
Select the frequency that you want the task executed. The choices are Immediately, Once, On Interval, On Day of Week, and On Date of Month.

Start Execution
Choose the first date and time that you want the task executed. This is the starting time for any task scheduled on an interval.

End Execution
Choose the last date and time that you want the task executed. This option does not apply if you chose the Immediately or Once execution options.

Time Zone
Select the time zone from the pull-down list. The choices are Agent, Console, and GMT.

Progress Page

The Progress page contains all notifications that have been received for a specific job. Each row in the page summarizes a status change of the job.

When you display the Progress page by double-clicking on a job execution, the page displays the notifications only for the destination and execution time of the job occurrence selected.

If you select an execution from the History Page, the Progress page typically displays Submitted, Scheduled, Running, and Completed or Failed notifications for that execution.
If you select an execution from the Active Jobs page, the Progress page displays those notifications that have already been received.

To view the notifications associated with other destinations or execution times, select other destinations or execution times from the pull-down lists. You can also select <All> in either list to view all notifications. If the job has been Deleted on a destination, the Deleted notification always displays at the top of the Progress Page.

Note:
The Progress page is only available with the Show Details option of the Job menu.

The columns contain the following information:

Job Type
The job type is depicted with an icon at the left of the row. These icons are the same as the Active Jobs page. See Active Jobs on page 4-5.

Status
For information on the status of a job, see Active Jobs on page 4-5 and Job History on page 4-6.

Destination
This is the destination of the specific occurrence of the job.

Notification Time
This is the time the Console was notified.

The following options are available on the page:

Destination
Select the destination of the job occurrences you want to view from the pull-down list. Select <All> for all destinations. The list of job occurrences changes according to the selection.

Execution
Select the execution time of the job occurrences you want to view from the pull-down list. Select <All> for all executions. The list of job occurrences changes according to the selection.

Save As
Select the Save As button to save the list of job occurrences as a local file using the standard Windows file dialog box.

Print
Select the Print button to print the list of job occurrences in the Progress page.

Show Output
If output exists for an occurrence of a job, you can display the output in the Output dialog box. To display any existing output:

Output Dialog Box

The Output dialog box displays any output as a result of the execution of an occurrence of a job.

Note:
If no output is produced by a job, a message displays that states that there is no output for the job. If the output includes only blank spaces, the dialog box is blank.

With the Output dialog box displayed, the following options are available:

Save As
Select the Save As button to save the output as a local file using the standard Windows file dialog box.

Close
Select the Close button to exit the dialog box after viewing it.

Print
Select the Print button to print the contents of the dialog box.

Job Definition
Select the Job Definition button to display more details.

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