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Partner TechTip: Troubleshooting Enterprise Job Scheduling Issues Is Nearly Impossible

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Discover how easy it is to view Windows and UNIX logs from one central console.

 

As we automate more and more of the data center, we realize that just because something is automated doesn't mean that we will never have to deal with it again. Eventually, some of these automated tasks are going to fail. When they fail, you need to be able to view the logs for these events. You may need to sign on to the server, and you may need to provide reports to your management team, too.

 

Troubleshooting and quick thinking can be challenging when debugging production control issues in the middle of the night. The last thing you want to do is spend time searching for the evidence. Every minute you spend looking for logs or reports that help uncover the problem is time ticking away on the service-level agreement. How do we provide that one-stop-shopping approach that allows one click of the mouse to find the problem?

 

Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise is Help/Systems' answer to these troubleshooting difficulties. For years, Robot/SCHEDULE has quickly solved AS/400-based scheduling issues. With the release of Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise, we have conquered this issue for the Windows, UNIX, and Linux production control team. The completion history of Robot/SCHEDULE allows the administrator to see the jobs that have failed (see Figure 1).

 

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Figure 1: Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise Completion History shows jobs that have ended abnormally.

 

Once you have the list of jobs that ended abnormally, you can see whether a job is an Agent job or a System i job. You can look at the jobs' spool files (Figure 2) to see that one of the files is the agent log and the other is the typical job log from the System i.

 

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Figure 2: Double-click on AGENTLOG or QPJOBLOG file to start troubleshooting.

 

Then, you can open the agent log and see the problems. In this case, it was a failed logon attempt to the server (see Figure 3.) Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise supports signing onto the server via the user interface. This again allows you to do all of your troubleshooting from one central console.

 

 

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Figure 3: Review the AGENTLOG for the cause of the job failure.

 

We know controlling your enterprise scheduling is very important. Learn more about Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise and even try it free for 30 days in your environment.

 

TOM HUNTINGTON

Tom Huntington is Executive Vice President of Technical Solutions at HelpSystems, and has been with the company for nearly 30 years. He works with business alliances, acquisitions and large customer relationships and ensures that the HelpSystems software works with other major software and hardware vendors worldwide.

Tom often speaks on enterprise scheduling, security, automation topics, IBM i technology, and the HelpSystems products, and hosts technical presentations on a variety of automation topics. He is the author of the HelpSystems IBM i Marketplace Survey and has written articles on automated operations, security, cloud computing, and business intelligence for leading trade journals and newsletters. He was named an IBM Champion in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 for over three decades of advocation and thought leadership on the IBM i platform.

Contact Tom at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..


 

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