Scheduling tasks

Certain administrative actions are generic in nature. Scheduling tasks is one such task or task set, as it involves a series of related procedures.

Note that scheduling tasks is not supported in TrueSight Middleware Administrator (Monitor Edition).

See a summary of the functionality differences between the full version of TrueSight Middleware Administrator and TrueSight Middleware Administrator (Monitor Edition).

You can use scheduled tasks when importing and exporting IBM WebSphere MQ Objects. You can also schedule managed objects for create and modification purposes (for both IBM WebSphere MQ and TIBCO EMS). The tasks that are relevant to scheduling are:

Object creation
Object properties modification
Importing and exporting of WebSphere MQ objects
Managing (WebSphere MQ and TIBCO EMS) objects (including the creation or modification of objects (see the section below), and object-specific operations such as clearing queues or starting/stopping channels)
Running WebSphere MQ MQSC commands (see Running MQSC commands)

Since the first two actions are prerequisite to task scheduling (the latter has no purpose without the former), they are described in the following sections. Refer to the Managing connections section for further details about importing and exporting WebSphere MQ objects.

Note

Most Properties Editors in TrueSight Middleware Administrator have a Schedule option as one of the generic functions in the options bar (if creating or modifying an object of the selected category is supported by either the middleware or TrueSight Middleware Administrator itself). These enable the user to either create an object or to update object properties, and schedule these processes to run in the future.

Creating an object

To create an object

Select an IBM WebSphere MQ or TIBCO EMS connection from the Navigation Panel.
Select the required object category (for instance, Local Queues) from the Navigation Panel.
From the Summary View, select the Add Item icon.
Set Properties for the new object.
Now select the Schedule Task option from the options above the new object properties.
Follow the instructions below to schedule the task.

Modifying object properties

To modify an object's properties

Select an IBM WebSphere MQ or TIBCO EMS connection from the Navigation Panel.
Select the required object category (for instance, Local Queues) from the Navigation Panel.
From the Summary View, click on the specific object (for instance, the name of the Local Queue).
The Properties Editor for that local queue is displayed. Make the required changes.
Again, do not save but select the Schedule Task option from the options above the Editor.
Follow the instructions below to schedule the task.

Scheduling a task

To schedule a task

Select the Schedule option, the yellow rectangular calendar from the options displayed.
Set the relevant parameters:
1. Start Time (defaults to 30 minutes past the current time).
2. Set a Start Date. This may be today's date or one or more days from now.
3. Set a Repeat Count. This is the number of times to repeat the particular task (once scheduled). For example, entering 2 means the task will actually be executed three times (the initial execution, plus the two repeated executions). Select Indefinite to enforce an unlimited repetition (supported for all schedulable tasks). To end the unlimited repetition, delete it from the list of Scheduled Tasks for the specific queue manager.
4. Set the Repeat Interval, the number of seconds between task instances. Note that the Repeat Count must be greater than '1' for Repeat Interval configuration to be relevant.
5. Enter an email address in the Email Notification To field. The specified email address will receive notification on the scheduled task's success or failure. Note that multiple email addresses can be entered; each email should be separated by a semi-colon or space.
6. Enter any additional comments in the Note text box. These comments are included in the email notification and also appear in the properties of the scheduled task. It is recommended to enter a short note as large notes will stretch out the scheduled task ID row item in the UI.
  Note
  
  The Origin Email, SMTP host, and SMTP port must be set by the Product Administrator for this to work correctly.
After you have set the required parameters, select Schedule to configure the task.

The number of task instances and interval between instances is determined by the values that you set in the previous procedure. It is important to pay attention to the connection between the sub-steps if you set any task to run more than once. Once you configure a task, it will appear in the Scheduled Tasks view, as described below.

Viewing scheduled tasks

The Scheduled Tasks view (relevant to both IBM WebSphere MQ and TIBCO EMS) lets you view the full range of tasks scheduled for object creation or modification. Tasks are associated with objects that belong to the same server.

To view scheduled tasks

Select the Scheduled Tasks object from the Navigation Panel.
The Scheduled Tasks view is displayed.
From the displayed list of tasks, perform one of the following:

- From the Operations dropdown menu, click Delete to remove the task. The object that was scheduled is no longer displayed.
- Click on the ID of the task to see the properties of the task itself.