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Seven Time-Saving Tips for AJS

In the wonderful world of software, it’s undoubtedly impossible to know every nuance of the products you use. This is even true for those products you frequently use, such as IBM* Advanced Job Scheduler for i5/OS* (AJS). That’s why, as a product developer, I find it crucial to provide tips that’ll help save customers’ time and effort. Here are seven tips for AJS to do just that. A few may be old hat for some users, but for others they may be revolutionary. I’m certain everyone will take away helpful information.

Tip 1: Resequence Jobs in a Job Group
I used to tell customers to set up a job group containing the sequence 1 job with no commands and a sequence 99 with no commands. This way, they could easily change the first job in the group that actually had commands or change the sequence number. They could also use the sequence 99 job as a predecessor job to others because they knew it would always be last. But now with the GUI in IBM iSeries* Navigator, you can easily resequence jobs in a job group. To do so, follow these steps:

1. In iSeries Navigator, expand My Connections>Your System>Work Management>Advanced Job Scheduler>Job Groups.
2. Right-click the job group and select “Resequence Jobs in Group.”
3. Select the job and click “Move Up” or “Move Down.”
4. Click “OK” when you’re finished.

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, after resequencing a job group, jobs are renumbered with a gap between each sequence number. The number of jobs in the group determines the size of the gap. Second, when you add jobs to a job group using the GUI, they’ll always appear at the end. Use the steps above to move the job to the right location within the job group.

Tip 2: How Not to Run a Job on the Fifth Friday of the Month
You can do more than just select dates in a holiday calendar. You can also select one or more predefined schedules. This means the predefined schedule information becomes dates to not run a job. For example, you can create a job that runs every Friday, but only four Fridays per month. You’ll need a holiday calendar set up so the job won’t run on the fifth Friday for those months with five. Before you create the holiday calendar, create a predefined schedule.

To create a predefined schedule, follow these steps:

1. In iSeries Navigator, expand My Connections>Your System>Work Management.
2. Right-click “Advanced Job Scheduler” and select “Properties.”
3. Select the Schedules tab.
4. Click “New.”

Let’s name our schedule FIFTHFRI. Enter a brief description. You’ll notice this looks like the Schedule tab for a scheduled job but without the time fields. For this example, select the Monthly radio button under “Frequency.” Click the right arrow next to the Month field directly above the calendar until you see a calendar that contains five Fridays. Click the fifth Friday. If it doesn’t turn green, it means that date’s already passed; click the right arrow again until you find another month with five Fridays and click the fifth Friday. Under Details, select “Fifth Friday of each month.” Click “OK” when finished to add the schedule.

To create a holiday calendar, follow these steps:

1. In iSeries Navigator, expand My Connections>Your System>Work Management.
2. Right-click “Advanced Job Scheduler” and select “Calendars.”
3. Select the Holiday Calendars tab.
4. Click “New.”

Let’s name our holiday calendar SPECIAL. Enter a brief description. Remember that you can also have regular holidays in this calendar along with the predefined schedule. But in this example, we’re only going to have a schedule.

1. Click the Schedules button in the lower-left corner.
2. Select the FIFTHFRI schedule in the list of available schedules and click “Add.”
3. Click “OK.”
4. As you arrow through the different months, you’ll see that the fifth Friday of a month is green with a black box around it. The black box signifies that the holiday comes from a predefined schedule (see Figure 1).
5. Click “OK” when you’re finished to add the holiday calendar.

Now we can use this holiday calendar in the job that’s scheduled to run every Friday. Note: After changing a calendar (scheduling, holiday or fiscal), you’ll need to reset all scheduled jobs that use it.

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