B-Defaults and options determination

This section explains the nuances of how the defaults and options are inherited across levels.

Every job has a set of defaults and options associated with it. PCS determines a value for a default or option taking into account the PCS-supplied initial values, user-supplied values (these are optional), and an inheritance process Production importance and acceptable time have further processes applied. (See Production Importance Considerations and Acceptable Time Considerations for more information.)

You may specify one or more entries for the defaults and options for your workload. (If you don't specify any, the PCS-supplied initial values apply). These values are stored in the AMD and when a battle plan is created for a specific workload the defaults and options are determined for each job using these specified entries and an inheritance process is applied.

Specification Process

Defaults and options can be specified in three sub-dialogs: the Defaults and Options Management, the View/Edit Ready Battle Plan, and the View/Edit Active Battle Plan. The specification process is similar in each.

You enter values for defaults and options at the highest level that apply to all the relevant jobs. These levels are:

• L0 These are the initial values for L1 supplied with PCS. L1 applies to all applications for all production cycles.
• L2 applies to a specific application for all production cycles. L3 applies to a specific job tree for all production cycles.
• L4 applies to a specific job for all production cycles.
• L5 applies to a specific application for a day-of-week production cycle.
• L6 applies to a specific job tree for a day-of-week production cycle.
• L7 Specific Triggering or Triggered Job Instance for a day-of-week production cycle. Though you don't specify defaults and options at the L7 level, PCS does refer to this level to report some automatic behaviors.
• L8 applies to a specific job for a day-of-week production cycle.

L1 to L4 are used to set the normal case, and apply to all production cycles. In this case the production cycle is referred to as $ALL-PCs.

L5 to L6, and L8 are used to set up overrides for a specific day of week production cycle, say APEXWED. They are used for any battle plan created and activated for that production cycle, i.e., every Wednesday.

"L0" PCS Initial Values

PCS initializes the defaults and options for all applications and all production cycles. If you do not change them these are the values that are used:

You can certainly run your workload with these settings, though, since all the jobs inherit the same settings, there is no differentiation among the jobs.

L1 All Applications for All Production Cycles

PCS allows you to set values for the defaults and options which apply to all applications in any production cycle (day-of-week or specific-day):

How to Apply Defaults /Options * Production Importance PI propagation span Generate Job Summary? Early setup? Early Setup Options * Use CA 7 due-out times As Acc. Job Tree Options * Battle plan activation options * Job recognition options *Where * indicates the default or option can only be specified at this level. The other defaults and options may be superseded at a lower level, i.e. L2-L8.

L 2 Specific Application for All Production Cycles

You can set the following defaults and options at this level:

Production Importance Generate Job Summary? Early setup? Use CA 7 due-out times As Acc. Acceptable TimeThese defaults and options are applied to the trees, paths and jobs in this application in any production cycle (day-of-week or specific-day) and can be superseded by a value at a more specific level, i.e., L3-L8.

Using D as a value at this level restores the value from L1.

L 3 Specific Job Tree for All Production Cycles

You can set the following defaults and options at this level:

Production Importance Generate Job Summary? Early setup? Use CA 7 due-out times As Acc. Acceptable TimeSince a job tree is identified by its header job and a job can be identified with or without a schid, there are two sub-levels to consider.

L 3a Specific Job Tree (without schid) for all Production Cycles

These defaults and options are applied to the jobs in any tree, with this name, regardless of schid, in any production cycle (day-of-week or specific-day) and can be superseded by a value at a more specific level, i.e., L3b, L4-L8.

Using D as a value at this level restores the value from L2.

L 3b Specific Job Tree (with a schid) for all Production Cycles

These defaults and options are applied to the jobs in any tree, with this name and schid, in any production cycle (day-of-week or specific-day) and can be superseded by a value at a more specific level, i.e., L4-L8.

Using D to reset a value at this level restores the value from L2.

L4 Specific Job Instances for All Production Cycles

You can set the following defaults and options at this level:

Production Importance PI Propagation Span Generate Job Summary? Early setup? Use CA 7 due-out times As Acc. Culprit Job Time Acceptable TimeSince a job can be identified with or without a schid, there are two sub-levels to consider.

L4a Specific Job Instance (without schid) for all Production Cycles

These defaults and options are applied to the jobs with this job name, with any schid, in any production cycle (day-of-week or specific-day) and can be superseded by a value at a more specific level, i.e., L4b, L5-L8. (PI Propagation Span can be overridden at the L5 and L8 levels only; Culprit Job Time can be overridden at the L8 level only)

Using D as a value at this level restores the value from L3.

L4b Specific Job Instance (with a schid) for all Production Cycles

These defaults and options are applied to the jobs with this job name and schid, in any production cycle (day-of-week or specific-day) and can be superseded by a value at a more specific level, i.e., L5-L8. (PI Propagation Span can be overridden at the L5 and L8 levels only; Culprit Job Time can be overridden at the L8 level only)

Using D to reset a value at this level restores the value from L3.

Shielding

A wrinkle occurs when specifying values at the job level. There is a difference between having an empty default/options entry for an entity and not having an entry at all.

Consider the following four entries for the defaults and options for an application, job tree, and two jobs.

At run time a job either has a schid or it doesn't. If it doesn't, it takes its value from the specification for a job name without schid (if there is one). If it does have a schid and the value is explicitly blanked out or changed to D (for default value) and the entry is saved on the Create a new Default or Options panel, then the value in the job name without schid is ignored and it looks to the job tree for a value. This is called shielding.

In the example SUP1102 is part of the 3-job path with SUP1001H as the header job and SUP1103T as the trailer job. There are two schid's, 001 and 002. Notice the values for the production importance.

SUP1102_001 illustrates normal inheritance: there is no entry for SUP1102_001, so the entry for SUP1102 (with no schid) is used and sets the production importance to 1; this value is propagated to SUP1001H since it is upstream; since there is no entry for SUP1103T, the value for it is taken from the job tree entry, SUP1001H (with no schid).

SUP1102_002 illustrates the shielding case: the all blank entry for SUP1102_002 tells PCS to ignore the SUP1102 (with no schid) entry and take its value from the job tree level, in this case 3. Both SUP1001H and SUP1103T also take their value from the job tree case.

Shielding can occur at the job tree level as well since a job tree is described by its header job, which may or may not have a schid associated with it. In the above example to shield the job tree value, create an all blank entry for the SUP1001H_002 job tree. SUP1102_002 would take it's value from the application.

L5 Specific Application for a Day-of-Week Production Cycle

You can set the same defaults and options as you can for L2, with them applying to a day-of-week production cycle, say APEXTUES. Every time a battle plan is activated for APEXTUES these defaults and options are applied. Otherwise they are ignored.

L6 Specific Job Tree for a Day-of-Week Production Cycle

You can set the same defaults and options as you can for L3, with them applying to a day-of-week production cycle, say APEXSAT. Every time a battle plan is activated for APEXSAT these defaults and options are applied. Otherwise they are ignored.

L6a and L6b are applied in the same way as they are for L3a and L3b.

L7 Specific Triggering or Triggered Job Instance for a Day-of-Week Production Cycle

PCS uses L7 to indicate when a value is determined from a triggering or triggered job. You cannot set values at this level. For example, when CAT2204 derives its production importance from its triggered job, CAT2205, the defaults and option panel for CAT2204 lists its production importance as D (1 derived from Triggering Requirement L7)

L8 Specific Job Instance for a Day- of-Week Production Cycle

You can set the same defaults and options as you can for L4, with them applying to a day-of-week production cycle, say APEXSAT. Every time a battle plan is activated for APEXSAT these defaults and options are applied. Otherwise they are ignored.

L8a and L8b are applied in the same way as they are for L4a and L4b.

Bulk Default and Options Export, Import and Compare

This facility provides a mechanism to enter a few representative default and options entries and export them to a data set for editing. After generating the entries you need, you import them back into PCS. The level is implicit (e.g., in the Compare Default and Options report), where you would deduce DEFOPT PC=$ALL-PCs TYPE=APPL NAME=REA PI=3 is a L2 specification with DEFOPT PC=APEXMON TYPE=APPL NAME=REA PI=2 a L5 specification.

See Perform bulk updates to default and options for details.

Precedence Level and Alerts

Though alerts can be specified on the defaults and options sub-dialog, they are not "inherited". Rather they use filters to give the context of the alert. For instance not setting the production cycle filter, PC=, means the alert applies to all production cycles, whereas PC=APEXTHUR applies to Thursday production cycles. The other filters are used to limit the applications, trees and jobs the alert applies to.

Inheritance Process

When PCS creates a battle plan, it uses the inheritance process to assign a value to every default and option of every job in the battle plan using the values specified in the Defaults and Options sub-dialog.

PCS calculates the value of a particular default or option by assigning the first applicable value starting at the L8b level, then L8a, then L6, and so on to L1.

If you change the battle plan within the View/Edit Ready Battle Plan sub-dialog, using the 0-Defaults/Options command, these values take precedence and the inheritance process is repeated.

If you change the active battle plan within the View/Edit Active Battle Plan sub-dialog, using the 0-Defaults/Options command, these values take precedence over the ones specified in either of the above dialogs and the inheritance process is again repeated.

You can also choose to make the change apply to all future battle plans on this day-of- week production cycle. In this case they are stored in the AMD and treated like other specifications at the L5, L6, or L8 level. So if a change to the current battle plan is made within the production cycle named APEXFRI, then the change applies to all future occurrences of battle plans run during APEXFRI.

Precedence Levels at Runtime

Precedence levels are reflected on the following panels in the Manage Ready/Active Battle Plan, View/Edit Ready Battle Plan and View/Edit Active Battle Plan sub-dialogs,

• View/Edit Defaults/Options for Selected Job Instance ... (in response to a O-Defaults/Options line command), and its HELP Panel. The D values are explained by what level the value is taken from for this job.
• View/Edit Defaults/Options for Selected Job Tree ... (in response to a O-Defaults/Options line command), and its HELP Panel. The D values are explained by what level the value is taken from for this job tree.
• View/Edit Defaults/Options for Selected Application ... (in response to a O-Defaults/Options line command), and its HELP Panel. The D values are explained by what level the value is taken from for this application.

A knowledge of these levels is also useful to understand the explanation on the Job Instance Progress Analysis - Acceptable Time Details panel - the levels are referred to without identifying their level number.