Important BMC Helix Control-M Information for Year-end 2023

November 12, 2023: BMC is alerting all users of BMC Helix Control-M to special year-end procedures. If you have any questions about this technical bulletin, contact BMC Customer Support at 800 537 1813 (United States or Canada) or call your local support center.

Creating New Calendars

For each regular or periodic calendar at your BMC Helix Control-M site, ensure that entries exist for both 2024 and 2025. Create them if they do not exist. The entries can be either real or dummy entries that contain at least one day set to Y. These entries are required for the following reasons:

At the end of 2023, BMC Helix Control‑M might attempt to read calendar entries for 2024.
During 2024, BMC Helix Control‑M might attempt to read the calendar entries for 2025.

BMC recommends that you complete any necessary modifications before the beginning of 2024.

Note

For a leap year, take into account the additional day in the month of February, that is, February 29.

Retaining 2023 Calendar Definitions

BMC recommends retaining your 2023 calendar entries until mid‑2024 or later. At the beginning of 2024, BMC Helix Control‑M might attempt to read entries for 2023.

Handling of Periodic Calendars

At the beginning of 2024, jobs might be scheduled incorrectly if you use periodic calendars. For example, if a calendar contains one or more periods that cross a boundary year (starting in one year and continuing in the next year), the job definition cannot assume that the beginning of the period coincides with the beginning of the year. To avoid this problem, remove the 2023 periodic calendar entry as soon as it is no longer needed.

Note

This issue refers to periodic calendars and does not conflict with the issue discussed in Retaining 2023 Calendar Definitions.

Customizing Hard-coded Dates

Jobs might be scheduled incorrectly if specific dates are defined in job definitions. Hard-coded dates that are applicable to 2023 might not be appropriate in 2024.

For example, a job that is defined with a specific day and month but without a specific year (such as the seventh day of the tenth month) was meant for 2023. You might need to modify the date to 2024.

Review these definitions so that they will work correctly in 2024.

Customizing Control-M Variables

If you created any variables for 2023 in BMC Helix Control-M, review them to see if they need to be modified for 2024.

Where to get the latest product information

To view the latest BMC documents, see the Support Central website at http://www.bmc.com/support. Notices such as flashes, technical bulletins, and release notes are available on the website. You can subscribe to proactive alerts to receive e-mail messages when notices are issued or updated. For more information about proactive alerts, see the Support Central website.