Custom Start Time Conditions

Oftentimes, job start events that are relevant to the execution of a Jobstream are not part of the internal scheduler definition and are therefore not defined in the scheduler database. These job start events can include file transfers from vendors, jobs inserted into the schedule by another job, or outside systems starting jobs using various APIs or other methods.

To deal with this operational reality, you, as a system administrator, can configure Custom Start Time Conditions which, in combination with scheduler-defined conditions, are used to generate forecasts and predictions.

Important!

This feature is available for CA7, AutoSys, Automic Automation, Control-M, and ESP Workload Automation integrations.

This page includes the following:

Overview

custom start time conditions

The implementation flow that AAI uses to generate the relevant forecasts and predictions, and add custom start conditions is the following:

  • Identify candidates

  • Create recommendations

  • Add custom start time conditions, either manually or automatically

  • Update recommendations

AAI identifies candidate jobs for custom start time conditions based on the observation that a job has no visible start conditions defined in the scheduler database; however, it does have actual runs.

Based on the run history, AAI attempts to make recommendations for custom start time conditions, which can be manually set, automatically assigned / adjusted, or non-existent for any candidate.

Software Components

The software components that carry out the tasks described above are the following:

  • Statistics Generator: Analyzes the run history for candidates and generates and updates recommended start times.

  • Converter: Identifies the candidates (no visible start conditions) and, if Auto Adjust is enabled, it automatically applies the recommendations to the jobs.

  • GUI: Allows you to manage custom start time conditions using the web UI, see Working with the Custom Conditions Admin UI.

  • Config Tool: Allows you to define different parameters that allow you to work with custom start time conditions using scripts or programs, see Config Tool - Server Parameters.

Database Schema

The Statistics Generator generates data while processing the information, which is saved in different tables of the AAI database.

When AAI identifies a candidate, it saves it in the Candidate table. If the system is also able to identify a weekly recurring pattern and recommend a start time, that information is saved in the RecommendedStartTime table.

Also, depending on the data found, the following columns can be added to existing tables:

  • Jawsjob table

    • autoAdjust
    • cstcOffset
    • ignoreFromCCM

  • JobScheduler table

    • lastRecommendTime

    • lastAutoAdjustTime

Working with the Custom Conditions Admin UI

To work with custom start conditions, do the following:

  1. Log in to AAI with a user with Administrator permissions, see Accessing AAI and follow the steps under Launching and Logging In to the AAI Next Generation Web UI.

  2. At the bottom of the MY PAGES section on the right, click System Tools.

  3. Click the Custom Condition Admin tab.

Once you have access the tab, you can adjust different parameters to better suit your needs.

At the top of the page, open the Scheduler dropdown to filter the data displayed to a particular or all scheduler(s).

Optionally, you can also apply a Global Custom Start Time Condition Offset time to adjust custom start times added by the Auto Adjust feature. When you apply the condition(s) to the job, the offset amount that you have define is subtracted from the recommended start time resulting in the job starting earlier than the recommendation. This is particularly useful when you want to use the jobstream analysis to make a more optimistic prediction of when the job will start. Configuring an earlier condition in this way prevents the jobstream analysis from predicting a second start of a job when it has started earlier than anticipated based on the recommended start time.

Note:

The Global Custom Start Time Condition Offset is applied to the recommendation in the converter. Changes to the global offset are reflected in the predictions after the converter cycle following the change.

The main two sections of the tab are the Candidates without Custom Start Time Conditions and the Jobs with Custom Start Times (* for Jobs that are not candidates) sections. The Row Count below each section header displays the total number of items in the respective table.

The Candidates without Custom Start Time Conditions section lists the candidates/jobs identified by AAI so that you can review them to see if custom start time conditions are appropriate for the jobs. Here you can configure the custom start time conditions for a job (candidate).

When you are done setting up the conditions as needed, click the save button to keep your changes or the reset button to reset the selected checkboxes.

The table displays the following columns:

  • Auto Adjust

    Allows you to enable and disable Auto Adjust for the job. When enabled, the system recommendations are automatically applied as custom start time conditions on the job each time the recommendations are calculated.

    You can also select or deselect all entries at once using the Auto Adjust dropdown menu on the upper right corner of the section.

    Notes:

    • Auto Adjust is enabled by default only for Automic Automation, Control-M, and ESP Workload AutomationAutoSys and CA7 scheduler types. However, this is the recommended configuration for most installations.

    • When Auto Adjust is enable, AAI by default applies an offset of one hour prior to the start time.

  • Job Name

    Click a job name to open the job details.

  • Scheduler

    Click a scheduler to open the details of the scheduler.

  • Job Streams

    Lists the jobstreams related to the job.

  • Ignore

    You can also ignore candidates. To do so, check the Ignore checkbox for the job and use the toggle (ShowHidden Rows / Hide Rows Marked to Ignore) on the upper right corner of the section to hide/show the respective rows. You can also select or deselect all entries at once using the Ignore dropdown menu on the upper right corner of the section.

    Ignoring a job hides it from the UI but any configuration set is still applied.

  • Configure

    Click the Configure link open the Create/Update Custom Start Time Conditions dialog where you can manually add or modify conditions to a job. The dialog displays recent job runs along with system recommendations (if available).

    Use the Custom Start Times column to add your settings.

  • Recommended Start Times

    Displays the recommended start times (if available). To obtain these recommendations, AAI checks the job's runs in the past 12 weeks to identify recurring patterns.

The Jobs with Custom Start Times (* for Jobs that are not candidates) section shows jobs that already have custom start time conditions assigned to them. These may be candidates that were set to Auto Adjust or those that have manual custom start time conditions defined.

The table displays the same columns as the section above it plus two that allow you to work with the custom conditions already set:

  • Custom Start Times

    Displayed the custom start times already applied to the job.

  • Delete Custom

    Select the checkbox to delete the custom start times for the job.

Config Tool - Server Parameters

You can use the AAI Config Tool to define different parameters that allow you to work with custom start time conditions. To define them, go to the Params tab of the Config Tool and select less commonly configured parameters. For more information ,see Configuration Tool - Params Tab.

These are the relevant server parameters:

  • candidates.calculationsEnabled

    If enabled, will perform computations for custom condition candidates.

    Default: false

  • candidates.includeCustomDepCandidates

    Specifies whether jobs with only custom start time conditions will be added to the candidate results or not. When False, jobs with custom start time conditions will be not treated as candidate.

    Default: true

  • candidates.lookbackWeeks

    Number of recent past weeks during which jobs with runs will be considered. It cannot be more than the number of days set in stats.globalMaximumDays.

    Default: 12

  • candidates.supportUniversalSchedulers

    When enabled, allows setting custom start time conditions to universal (Automic Automation, Control-M, ESP Workload Automation) jobs.

    Default: true

  • cstc.autoAdjustOffset

    When auto adjusting a custom start time, this amount of time will be subtracted from the recommended start time.

    Default: 1:00:00

  • cstc.consistencyVariationThreshold

    When the number of job runs on a particular day of the week varies by no more than this percentage, we treat that day as consistent when calculating recommended start times. For example a day with 8 job runs and a day with 9 job runs are considered consistent when the threshold set to 15, but not considered consistent if the threshold is 10.

    Default: 15

  • cstc.maxDailyJobRuns

    When more than this number of job runs occurs in a day, that day will be excluded from custom start times computations.

    Default: 50

  • cstc.minimalConfidenceFactor

    Minimal confidence factor required on auto-adjust jobs for the custom start time conditions to be updated automatically.

    Default: 75

  • cstc.recommendationDaysOfWeek

    The days of the week to calculate recommendations for custom start times. The recommendations are not calculated after each statistics generator run, instead they are calculated only on the provided days of the week. The value is in the format of comma-separated week represented by two characters e.g. MO, WE, FR.

    Default: null

  • cstc.weekdayCombiningTolerance

    The tolerance in minutes the different start times across week days have when trying to combine them to single JawsCalendar. For instance, a start time of 2:00am on Monday and a start time of 2:10am on Tuesday will be combined when the parameter is set to 10 minutes.

    Default: 15

System Alerts

Two System Alerts are available to support monitoring jobs that may require custom start time conditions modified or added to them.

These alerts can be used to alert you to new jobs that have been identified as candidates or jobs that previously had custom start time conditions added, but also those that have visible start conditions defined in the scheduler database.

  • New Candidate

    Notifies you when a CA7 job becomes a candidate for custom start time condition.

  • Non Candidate with CSTC

    Notifies you when a CA7 job with custom start time conditions became a non-candidate because a visible start condition is detected for the job.