Jobs

Jobs is a standard configuration interface for adding, editing, and removing jobs. A job is an application that can be run at scheduled times, using a cron-like syntax. You can customize the job by choosing which program to run, any arguments, and if applicable, the configuration that the scheduled job uses to gather additional options and features. The job section also can be used to create primary and backup jobs and determine the failover state.

For information about interacting with the grid and form, see Standard Configuration Interface in Unified Assurance Concepts. The Jobs interface has additional controls, described in Grid Details.

This user interface calls REST methods from the api/broker/jobs endpoints. See REST API for Unified Assurance Core for details.

The UI path for this interface is Configuration -> Broker Control -> Jobs.

Grid Details

The interface has the following buttons, in addition to the standard Unified Assurance buttons:

• Start: Select a job and click this to start the job immediately.

• Advanced Start: Select a job and click this to enter values as job arguments before starting the job.

• Help: Select a job and click this to show the documentation for the application.

In the main grid, click the - icon next to a server name to collapse that server's jobs and hide those entries. Click the + icon next to a server name to expand the jobs and show those entries.

Form Fields

• Server: The Unified Assurance server that will run the application.

• Package: The package for the application. The documentation for each application lists the correct package to select.

• Name: The name of the job.

• Program: The application that will be run. The path to the application is relative to the Unified Assurance installation directory.

• Arguments: The command line options to pass when running the application. The documentation for each application lists the available arguments.

• Description: The description of the job's function.

• Failover Type: The failover type for the job.

• Primary Job: If Failover Type is set to Redundant/Backup, the local broker checks to see if the partner broker is running, and if not, starts the backup.

• Decouple: If Failover Type is set to Redundant/Backup, this option appears. A normal primary/backup job pairing is a primary job on the primary server and a backup job on the backup server. This option allows for different combinations of primary/backup job pairings, such as a primary job on the backup server and a backup job on the primary server, or pairing jobs across servers that are not tied together.

• Status: The status of the job.

• Privileged: Whether to run the job as the root user account. Many Unified Assurance applications need this option to be checked for proper functionality. The documentation for each application lists whether this should be checked or unchecked.

• Scheduled: When this is selected, you can use the time fields that appear to set a schedule for the job to run automatically. When this is not selected, the job will not run automatically, but the broker can still call the job for custom processing.

  • Minutes: The minutes when the job will run. Set this to:

    • * to run every minute.

    • A number between 0 and 59 to run at that minute.

    • */N, where N is a number between 0 and 59, to run every N minutes. For example, set it to */5 to run the job every five minutes.

  • Hours: The hours when the job will run. Set this to:

    • * to run every hour.

    • A number between 0 and 23 to run at that hour.

    • */N, where N is a number between 0 and 23, to run every N hours. For example, set it to */5 to run the job every five hours.

  • Days: The day of the month when the job will run.

    • * to run every day.

    • A number between 1 and 31 to run on that day of the month.

    • */N, where N is a number between 1 and 31, to run every N days. For example, set it to */5 to run the job every five days.

  • Months: The month when the job will run.

    • * to run every month.

    • A number between 1 and 12 to run on that month.

    • */N, where N is a number between 1 and 12, to run every N months. For example, set it to */5 to run the job every five months.

  • WeekDays: The day of the week when the job will run.

    • * to run every day of the week.

    • A number between 0 and 7 to run on that day. Use 0 or 7 for Sunday, 1 for Monday, 2 for Tuesday, 3 for Wednesday, 4 for Thursday, 5 for Friday, and 6 for Saturday.

    • */N, where N is a number between 0 and 7, to run every N days. For example, set it to */5 to run the job every five days.

  See Configuring Scheduled Job Times for more information about using these fields to schedule jobs.

• Configuration: Additional settings needed for the application to function, such as rules files and number of threads. Not every job supports configurations. The documentation for each application lists the supported configuration options.

Configuring Scheduled Job Times

Jobs use a cron-like syntax to determine when the job is run. The scheduled time definition has fields for minutes, hours, days, months, and days of the week. Each of these fields can be set to one or more literal values in a comma-separated list, or *, which is interpreted as every. The job runs when the current time elements match the job's scheduled time elements.

For example:

• For the simplest schedule, set each time period to *. The current time will always match the job's scheduled time and the job will run every minute.

• Set Minutes to 30 and every other time period to *. The current time will match the scheduled time once every hour, at thirty minutes past the hour. The job will run once every hour, at 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, and so on.

• Set Minutes to 59, Hours to 23, Days to 7, and Months and WeekDays to *. The job will run at 23:59 on the 7th of every month, regardless of the day of the week the 7th falls on.

• Avoid creating overly-complex schedules with time criteria that very seldom match. For example, by setting Minutes to *, Hours to *, Days to 26, Months to 1, and WeekDay to 1, the job will only run when January 26 falls on a Monday. This means it would have run on January 26, 2015, and then not again until January 26, 2026.