Creating Your First Schedule Object

This topic is interesting for first users of Automic Automation. It describes how to create a Schedule object that automates the execution of the Workflow that we have created so far in this guide. The Schedule will trigger tje execution of the Workflow once a week on Mondays in the morning.

What You Should Know Beforehand

  • What is a Schedule?

    Schedules automate the execution of other executable objects at regular, user-defined intervals. In a Schedule object you define the periodicity and start times of the objects, then you specify the objects whose execution should be automated. For more information, see Schedules (JSCH).

  • Are there different ways of scheduling tasks in Automic Automation?

    Yes, Automic Automation provides several ways of designing recurrent tasks, and there are best practices as to which option is the one to apply in each situation. For more information, see Best Practices: Planning Scheduled Tasks.

Create a Schedule Object

Add a Schedule object to the GETTING_STARTED_OBJECTS folder that you created here: Creating Your First Job.

  1. Go to the Process Assembly perspective. In the Explorer list, click the Add Object toolbar button.
  2. Select Schedule (JSCH) and click OK.
  3. On the Object Name dialog enter the name of the Schedule. Call it JSCH.DISK.SPACE.QUERY.
  4. Click OK. The Schedule object opens to its Schedule page.

Define the Periodicity and the Start Time

First, we will define the periodicity with which the Schedule will trigger the execution of the Workflow, and the time at which this should happen.

  1. Go to the Attributes Page.
  2. The Schedule is processed in a Queue (QUEUE). If you do not explicitly assign a Queue to the Schedule, the system automatically uses the CLIENT Queue. The CLIENT Queue is available by default in each Client.
  3. In Period Turnaround Time, specify at what time the tasks in the Schedule should be automatically executed. Enter 8:00 AM.
  4. In Period Duration specify the periodicity in days of the Schedule, that is, the intervals at which the tasks in the Schedule will be executed. We want the Workflow to be executed once a week, so enter 7.

Add the Workflow to the Schedule

  1. Go to the Schedule page.
  2. In the table, expand the combo box in the Name column by clicking on it.

  3. Type the name of the Workflow (JOBP.FREE.DISK.SPACE.QUERY) or search for it to add it to the Schedule. Schedules can contain as many tasks as you need. In our example we are not going to insert more tasks.

    By default, added tasks are set to active (the Active checkbox next to the name of the Workflow is activated.). This means that they will be executed according to the Schedule and task settings you are about to define. If you deactivate this checkbox, the Workflow remains in the Schedule but it will not be executed.

  4. The Start Time is set by default. It is the same time that we have defined as Period Turnaround Time on the Attributes page. We can change the individual start times of the tasks in the Schedule here, so that they deviate from the period turnaround time. In our example, we will leave it as it is.

  5. The Start Offset (days) option lets you define the number of days that should pass between the beginning of the period turnaround (start time) and the activation of a task.

    Example: Let's suppose that today is Monday afternoon. We have just defined the period turnaround of our Schedule to start at 8:00 AM. This means that the Workflow will execute on Tuesday at 8:00 AM for the first time (as soon as we activate the Schedule). From then onward, it will execute every Tuesday at 8:00 AM. If we wanted the Workflow to execute every Wednesday instead, we would enter 2 in Start Offset (days).

  6. Save the Schedule.

Activate the Schedule

Now that we have a fully functional Schedule, we must activate it. Activating the Schedule object means executing it manually for the first time. After this first execution, the status of the Schedule is Active and it is visible in the list of Tasks in the Process Monitoring perspective. From this moment on, the Schedule runs until we cancel it manually.

To activate the Schedule, click the Execute button on the toolbar.

For more information, see:

See also: