Oracle Enterprise Manager Concepts Guide

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CHAPTER 4. Job Scheduling

The Job Scheduling services allow you to automate standard and repetitive activities, such as executing a SQL script or running an operating system program. 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:

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 to include database specific commands. For more information, see the Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Developer's Guide.

The tasks are grouped by the destination of the task:

The task scripts allow you to:

Note: For information on the predefined job tasks and their parameters, see "Predefined Job Tasks" [*].

Note: For information on the predefined job tasks that distribute and install software, see "Managing Software Distribution" [*].

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 "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" [*].

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 the "Console User Preferences" [*].

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 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:

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 [*] 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 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 listed deleted jobs. You cannot modify these jobs.

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.

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 the items selected in the Job window. See Figure 4 - 1 [*] 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" [*].
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" [*].
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" [*].
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.
Note: This action is recommended before clearing the Job History window.

Print History Prints the jobs listed in the Job History page.
Note: This action is recommended before clearing the Job History window.

Clear History Clears the jobs listed in the Job History page.
Note: The information is deleted from the repository.

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" [*].
Note: You can also double-click on a job listed in the Job Library page of the Job window to modify the saved job.

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 [*] for an illustration of a Job property sheet. The property sheets contains:

Attention: For this release of Oracle Enterprise Manager, you can only schedule jobs with a frequency of more than 24 hours. Do not use Hours and Minutes settings of the On Interval option. Also, the job task cannot run for more than 24 hours.

Attention: When submitting a job that consists of multiple tasks, the agent returns an error of "Maximum string length exceeded" if the the string of arguments that was sent is too long. In addition, the job fails. If that error displays when submitting a job, remove one or more tasks to shorten the string.

Creating a New Job

To create a new job:

    1. 3.1 Click on the Submit button to submit the job to the agents at the selected destinations. The job appears in the Active Jobs window.
    1. 3.2 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.

    1. 4.1 Click on the Submit button to submit the job to the agents at the selected destinations. The job appears in the Active Jobs window.
    1. 4.2 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:

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 for an event occurrence. The job cannot be scheduled. The job can be selected from the Fixit Job list in the Event Set Management Parameters page. See "Creating or Modifying an Event Set" [*].
Destination Type Select the destination type from the pull-down list: Database, Listener, Node, or Names Server.
Note: Listener job tasks are not available with this release.

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.

Note: Only network objects that have an agent running are included in the list of available destinations.

Example

This example illustrates how to complete the General Page when creating a job. Additional steps for completing the Tasks, Parameters, and Schedule Pages are discussed in following sections.

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.
For information on job tasks and parameters, see "Predefined Job Tasks" [*].
Selected Tasks You can remove tasks from this list. Select the task and click on the >> (Remove) button.

Note: If any task does not execute, control moves to the next task on the same level as the task that did not execute.

Example

This example illustrates how to complete the Tasks Page when creating a job. This example is a continuation of steps for completing the General Page. Additional steps for completing the Parameters and Schedule Pages are discussed in following sections.

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. For information on the specific task parameters, see "Predefined Job Tasks" [*].
For information on Software Manager and Data Manager job tasks, see "Managing Software Distribution" [*] and "Managing and Moving Data" [*].
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 the "Console User Preferences" [*].

Example

This example illustrates how to complete the Parameters Page when creating a job. This example is a continuation of steps for completing the General and Tasks Pages. Additional steps for completing the Schedule Page are discussed in following section.

    1. 12.1 Select Start instance, mount and open database from the Startup State pull-down list.
    1. 12.2 Enter the name of the initialization file that you want to use when starting the database. This the name of file on node where the database is located.
    1. 12.3 Check the Override Preferred Credentials box, then enter the appropriate username and password in the User Name and Password fields. If you do not override the credentials, the information that is set with the User Preferences property sheet is used. See "Console User Preferences" [*].
    1. 12.4 Select Normal from the Mount Mode pull-down list.
    1. 12.5 Select SYSDBA from the Connect As pull-down list.
    1. 12.6 Check the Force Startup box. Leave the Restrict connection privileges box unchecked.
    1. 13.1 Click on the Browse button to locate the name of the existing SQL*Plus script file that you want to run. After you locate the file in the file selection box, click the OK button. The contents of the SQL*Plus script appears in the Script Text box.
    1. 13.2 In the Script Text box, edit the contents of the existing SQL*Plus script if necessary. Click on the Save button to save your updates.
    1. 13.3 Enter any command-line parameters that you want to run with the SQL*Plus script in the SQL Parameters field.
    1. 13.4 Check the Override Preferred Credentials box, then enter the appropriate username and password in the User Name and Password fields. If you do not override the credentials, the information that is set with the User Preferences property sheet is used.
Note: If you want to create a new script, enter SQL*Plus commands in the Script Text box before entering a SQL*Plus filename. When you are finished, Click the Save button and provide a name for the new SQL*Plus script file.

Schedule Page

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

Attention: For this release of Oracle Enterprise Manager, you can only schedule jobs with a frequency of more than 24 hours. Do not use Hours and Minutes settings of the On Interval option. Also, the job task cannot run for more than 24 hours.

Execute Select the the frequency that you want the job 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 job executed. This is the starting time for any job scheduled on an interval.

End Execution Choose the last date and time that you want the job 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.

Example

This example illustrates how to complete the Schedule Page when creating a job. This example is a continuation of steps for completing the General, Tasks, and Parameters Pages.

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.

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" [*].

Status For information on the status of a job, see "Active Jobs" [*] and "Job History" [*].
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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