Job Control Action Properties

The Job Control Action Properties window contains the settings for a Job Control Action.

Property Pages

Action

Action to take

Select the action that will be carried out:

Action	Description
Hold a job	Places the target job on hold. Can be used to hold the job that is executing the action, or another action.
Release a job	Releases the target job. Can be used to hold the job that is executing the action, or another action.
Restart the job from the beginning	Restarts the target job from the beginning. Applies only to the job that is executing the action. This results in a new instance of the job being started. Subsequent steps in the original instance are not executed.
Run a job	Runs a job. The job can be started from any step. The new job is executed in parallel with the current job. That is, the Job Control action returns control immediately to the caller, without waiting for the target job to complete. To execute another job and wait for it to complete, use the Job Execution Task instead.
Terminate a job	Terminates (aborts) a running job. When this action is applied to "The current job," it terminates only the instance of the job that is executing the Response. If other instances of the job are running, they are not affected. When this action is applied to another job, it terminates all active instances of the target job.
Restart the step	Restarts the target step. Applies only to the step that is executing the action.
Run another step in the current job	Transfers control to another step in the current job. Once control is transferred, execution continues from the new step. Execution does not return to the original step.
Stop executing steps in this job	Instructs adTempus to stop automatically executing steps in the job. After this action is executed, you are responsible for executing subsequent steps as appropriate, using further Job Control actions.
Set the job's status to failed	Overrides normal success determination rules and sets the job's status to Failed.
Set the job's status to succeeded	Overrides normal success determination rules and sets the job's status to Succeeded.
Set the step's status to failed	Overrides normal success determination rules and sets the step's status to Failed.
Set the step's status to succeeded	Overrides normal success determination rules and sets the step's status to Failed.

Delay by

This option is only available when the Action to take is "Restart the job from the beginning," "Restart the step," or "Run a job."

Use this option to have adTempus wait a specified number of seconds before it performs the restart or job execution.

• For a restart action, setting a delay blocks execution of the current from continuing until the delay elapses.
• For a "Run a job" action, execution of the current job continues immediately. The target job is queued with a status of "Waiting for delay" and the Console will show the delayed start time as the "Execution Start" time for the queued instance.

Restart no more than __ times

This option is available only when the action is "Restart the job from the beginning" or "Restart the step."

When this option is selected, adTempus will limit the number of times that the job or step is restarted. Once the limit is exceeded, adTempus will not restart the job or step, and the "Restart limit exceeded" event will be fired.

Set the status of the calling job/step to "Resubmitted"

This option is only available when the Action to take is "Restart the job from the beginning" or "Restart the step."

When this option is checked, the current job instance (if the action is "Restart the job") and step have their status set to "Resubmitted." If this option is not checked, they retain their current status.

For example, suppose that you are setting up this action to restart the job if it fails. Instance 1 of the job runs and fails, so the action is invoked and the job restarts, creating instance 2. If the Set the status... option is checked, the status of instance 1 is changed from "Failed" to "Resubmitted," making it clear that the restart has occurred, and preventing instance 1 from appearing in the "Failed Jobs" view in the Console. If the Set the status...option is not checked, instance 1 retains its original "Failed" status.

Applies To

Determines whether the action applies to the current job  (the job that is executing the action), another job on the same server (or controlled by the same Controller), or a job on another computer. To target another job, you must have "Execute" authority for that job.

If the job is on a different computer or instance, the Console must also be connected to that adTempus server.

Step

This option is available only when the action is "Run a job" or "Run another step in the current job."

If the action is "Run a job" you may optionally specify the step at which execution should begin. If you do not select a step, the job is executed from the beginning.

If the action is "Run another step in the current job" you must specify the step to execute.

Run only the selected step

If this option is checked, adTempus will run only the step you have selected. Otherwise, adTempus runs the job starting with the selected step and continuing with the remaining steps in the job.

Responses

Choose which Responses you want to execute (this option applies to Responses for the job and for steps within the job):

• Execute Responses: All Responses are executed as normal.
• Do not execute any Responses: No Responses will be executed.
• Do not execute any Job Control Responses:All Responses will be executed except Job Control Responses (Responses that run, terminate, hold, or release a job or job step). Use this option if you do not want adTempus to execute any other jobs that are chained to the current job.

Checkpoint

This option is available only when the action is "Run a job" or "Run another step in the current job." You may optionally specify a checkpoint to be passed to the job or step.

Ignore conditions for the job

If this option is checked, adTempus will ignore any conditions that are defined for the target job (this forces the job to execute even if the conditions are not met). Conditions at the step level are not ignored (see next option).

Ignore conditions for individual steps

If this option is checked, adTempus will ignore any conditions that are defined for the target step, or for the steps of the target job (this forces the step(s) to execute even if the conditions are not met).

Force a new instance of the job if necessary

This option overrides the Multiple Instances option for the target job, forcing adTempus to start a new instance of the job even if another instance is already running.

Run only on same Agent

This option is only available if the current server is a Distributed Scheduling Controller computer. If this option is checked, the target job will be run only on the same computer as the calling job. If this option is not checked, the job will execute according to the Distributed Scheduling settings for its Queue, and may not execute on the same computer as the calling job.

Run only on Controller

This option is only available if the current server is a Distributed Scheduling Controller computer. If this option is checked, the target job will be run only on the Controller computer; any Agents associated with the job's Queue will be ignored. If the Queue is not configured to run jobs on the Controller, the job will not run unless the Force job to run on Controller option is also checked.

Force job to run on Controller

This option is only available if the current server is a Distributed Scheduling Controller computer. If this option is checked, the target job will run on the Controller computer even if the Queue is not configured to run jobs on the Controller.

Variables

The Variables page allows you to set or override Job Variables that have been defined for the target job. Values you provide here are used only when the job is executed by this Job Control Action.

For example, you may have a job that is triggered to run independently but can also be started by another job through a Job Control Action. If the job needs to behave differently depending on how it is started, you can set a Variable in the Job Control Action so that the job knows it is being started by another job.

The Variables page lists variables from two sources:

• Variables defined here in the Job Control Action properties window
• Variables defined in or inherited by the job to be executed (the target job)

The Override Target column indicates whether a variable will be sent to the target job:

• If there is no checkbox in the column, this indicates that the variable is defined in or inherited by the target job and either

  • it is not defined in or inherited by the calling job, or
  • the calling job inherits the variable from a common ancestor with the target job.

  That is, there is no inherited value to send to the target that is different than the value the target job already has. To use a different value in the target job, edit the variable to provide a new value.

• If the checkbox is checked and disabled, this indicates that the variable was defined or overridden in the Job Control Action. The shown value will be sent to the target job. If you do not want to send this value to the target job, click the Delete button to delete the override.
• If the checkbox is enabled, this indicates that the variable is defined or inherited for both the calling job and the target job, but the jobs have different values for the variable. Check this option to send the value from the calling job to the target job, or leave it unchecked if the target job should use its own value. The Value column will change to show the current value from the calling job or target job.