Part 1: PCS core features

Production Control Services (PCS) is an elective feature of ThruPut Manager AE. The material in PART 1 explains the context necessary to setup and manage batch workload that is scheduled and submitted by CA 7.

Definition of Core Features

The core features provide the facilities to allow your jobs to be optimized in the context of their relationship to the rest of the schedule. They include critical path management, predicting when jobs will be late and mitigating that situation based on the importance of the work.

It focuses on all the processes, settings, features and customizations a datacenter uses to have a meaningful implementation of PCS. For many installations this is sufficient.

However you may find that you have need of one or more of the many advanced features. In any case we recommend you complete the core implementation before implementing advance features.

Verify PCS-related environment

This section is relevant to you if you have inherited a functioning PCS environment or if you need to be reminded of the PCS environment in effect. Otherwise if you are early in the implementation process, skip this section and go to PCS Dialog Conventions.

Use the following commands to verify your settings. The PCS commands use a prefix associated with the PCS started task while the ThruPut Manager commands use a different one for its started task. (Tip: the D OPDATA command will remind you of the relevant prefixes. In this guide, the prefix, or comchar, for ThruPut Manager region is / and for the PCS region it's @.)

To see the class dedicated to the Production Services queue, use the following command:

If the PCS entry is NONE, then no class has been defined. (Defining it is covered in Set up PCS Queue.)

To see the current Service Classes dedicated to PCS, use:

If you can't tell if the Service Classes are dedicated to PCS, see the Add PCS-oriented information to SLM Policy.

To see the active Automation File and SLM Policy, use:

Assuming you have a PCS started task and an Application Management Database has already been created, you can use the following commands. If you are in the early stages, this section will be useful later.

For general PCS information, start with:

For PCS levels and parms use the following three commands, checking for up-to-date software levels and consistent CA 7 instances:

If you are early in your implementation, the rest of this chapter helps you setup the missing pieces. Review the Ongoing Considerations sections if you are new to an existing implementation. The Installation Guide has further information about the environment in which PCS operates.

PCS Dialog Conventions

You use two PCS sub-dialogs: one to set up the Application Management Database and one to display the workload in an active battle plan. In addition you update the SLM Policy using the SLM dialog.

The PCS dialog has several helpful features:

• HELP PF1 is available for each panel with extensive and detailed explanations. Use PF1 for an extended explanation, if one is available.
• G-Guidelines for using this Dialog, available on the Main Selection Menu, gives a description of how to approach this dialog for the first time.
• Glossary is a list of PCS terms with their definitions. It is available as a drop down menu on each panel.
• What's New is an explanation of changes to the dialog by PTF level. It is available as a drop down menu on each panel.
• Help drop down menu has three options: the first accesses the same material as the HELP (PF1) does; the second and third are for troubleshooting situations in consultation with the Compuware Customer Solutions team.

Finding a Particular Panel

Throughout this guide the panel images are preceded by the steps to reach the panel, i.e., starting with the Main Lobby panel, what to key on each successive panel to get to the panel in question.

Examples in this Guide

The examples in this Guide are built on a scenario at the Apex Insurance Company. For our purposes they have 50 or 60 jobs, some of which repeat during the day. They belong to eight applications. The various instructions and features are explained in the context of this workload.