Workstation
Using workstations for scheduling jobs and job streams.
If, instead, you want to learn about workstations because you are planning your network, see HCL Workload Automation: Planning and Installation or HCL Workload Scheduler for Z: Planning and Installation.
The computer system where you run your jobs and job streams is called a workstation.
Workstations can be grouped logically into workstation classes and organized hierarchically into domains, managed by domain managers.
When you create a workstation definition for a system in your network you define a set of characteristics that uniquely identify the system and that control how jobs run on it. For example, the IP address of the workstation, if it is behind a firewall, if communications with it must be secure, what time zone it is in, and the identity of its domain manager.
Master domain manager- A workstation acting as the management hub for the network. It manages all your scheduling objects. The master domain manager workstation must be installed with this role.
- Backup master domain manager
- A workstation that
can act as a backup for the master domain manager when problems
occur. It is a master domain manager, waiting to be activated.
Its use is optional. This workstation must be installed as a master domain manager workstation.
Learn more about switching to a backup master domain manager in the HCL Workload Automation: Administration Guide .
- Domain manager
- A workstation that controls a domain and that shares management responsibilities for part of the HCL Workload Automation network. It is installed as an agent, and then configured as a domain manager workstation when you define the workstation in the database.
- Dynamic domain manager
- An installed component in a distributed HCL Workload Automation network
that is the management hub in a domain. All communication to and from
the agents in
the domain is routed through the dynamic domain manager. When you
install a dynamic domain manager the
workstation types listed below are created in the database:
- fta
- Fault-tolerant agent component manually configured as domain manager
- broker
- Broker server component
- agent
- Dynamic agent component
- Backup dynamic domain manager
- A workstation which can act as a backup for the dynamic domain manager, when problems occur. It is effectively a dynamic domain manager, waiting to be activated. Its use is optional.
Learn more about switching to a backup dynamic domain manager in HCL Workload Automation: Administration Guide.
When you install a dynamic domain manager the workstation types listed below are created in the database:- fta
- Fault-tolerant agent component.
- broker
- Broker server component
- agent
- Dynamic agent component
- Fault-tolerant agent
- A workstation that receives and runs jobs. If there are communication problems with its domain manager, it can run jobs locally. It is installed as an agent, and then configured as a fault-tolerant agent workstation when you define the workstation in the database. This workstation is recorded in the HCL Workload Automation database as fta.
- Standard agent
- A workstation that receives and runs jobs only under the control of its domain manager. It is installed as an agent, and then configured as a standard agent workstation when you define the workstation in the database.
- Extended agent
- A workstation that has a host and an access method. The host is any other
workstation, except another extended agent. The access method is an HCL-supplied or user-supplied script or program that
is run by the host whenever the extended agent is referenced in the production plan. Extended agents
are used to extend the job scheduling functions of HCL Workload Automation to other systems and applications. For example,
to launch a job on an extended agent, the host runs the access method, passing it job details as
command line options. The access method communicates with the external system or application to
launch the job and return the status of the job.
Also it is a workstation where a HCL Workload Automation access method has been installed as a bridge so that you can schedule jobs in the SAP R/3, PeopleSoft, z/OS, or custom applications. It must be physically hosted by a fault-tolerant agent (up to 255 extended agents per fault-tolerant agent) and then defined as an extended agent in the database.
For more information, see HCL Workload Automation: User's Guide and Reference and Scheduling Job Integrations with HCL Workload Automation.
- Workload broker agent
- A workstation that manages the lifecycle of Workload Broker jobs in Workload Broker. It is installed and configured as a dynamic workload broker workstation in the database.
- z/OS agent
- A
distributed workstation that runs jobs scheduled from HCL Workload Automation for z/OS. Like fault-tolerant workstations, it is
installed in a HCL Workload Automation distributed domain. Unlike
fault-tolerant workstations, it does not:
- Have fault tolerance
- Require an end-to-end server
- Need topology definitions
Communication with the agents is handled directly by the controller. For more information about the end-to-end scheduling with fault tolerance capabilities, see Scheduling End-to-end with Fault Tolerance Capabilities.
Virtual workstation- A workstation that is created with the automatic
reporting attribute and the virtual option, defining a list of destinations,
for the workload submission, that are used to spread the workload
across trackers. When the scheduler processes the jobs submitted to
a virtual workstation, it distributes the workload according to a
sequenced turn criteria, based on a round-robin algorithm. To submit
the job, at least one of the destinations in the list must be available.
You can associate open intervals, parallel servers, and fixed resources to each destination belonging to the defined pool. The association is disabled at virtual workstation level, because the jobs that you submit on a virtual workstation are actually run on a single destination. When you associate parallel servers with a virtual workstation destination, you can specify a value up to 65535. The alternative workstation definition is not applicable either at workstation level or at single destination level.
- Remote engine
- A workstation that represents locally a remote HCL Workload Automation engine. It is a workstation used to run only shadow jobs. A shadow job is a job that runs locally and is used to map another job running on a remote engine. This relationship between the two jobs is called a cross dependency. You define a remote engine workstation if you want to federate your environment with another HCL Workload Automation environment, either distributed or z/OS, to add and monitor dependencies on jobs running in the other scheduling environment. This type of workstation uses a connection based on HTTP protocol to allow the two environments to communicate.
- Dynamic agent
- A
workstation that manages a wide variety of job types, for example,
specific database or FTP jobs, in addition to existing job types.
This workstation is automatically created and registered when you
install the dynamic agent.
Because the installation and registration processes are performed
automatically, when you view the agent in the Dynamic Workload Console, it results
as updated by the Resource Advisor Agent. You can group agents in
pools and dynamic pools.
In a simple configuration, dynamic agents connect directly to a master domain manager or to a dynamic domain manager. However, in more complex network topologies, if the network configuration prevents themaster domain manager or the dynamic domain manager from directly communicating with the dynamic agent, then you can configure your dynamic agents to use a local or remote gateway.
- Pool
- A workstation grouping a set of dynamic agents with similar hardware or software characteristics to submit jobs to. HCL Workload Automation balances the jobs among the dynamic agents within the pool and automatically reassigns jobs to available dynamic agents if an agent is no longer available. To create a pool of dynamic agents in your HCL Workload Automation environment, define a workstation of type pool hosted by the workload broker workstation, then select the dynamic agents you want to add to the pool. A computer system group is automatically defined in the workload broker database together with its associated dynamic agents.
- Dynamic pool
- A workstation grouping a set of dynamic agents that is dynamically defined based on the resource requirements you specify. For example, if you require a workstation with low CPU usage and the Windows operating system installed to run your job, you specify these requirements using the Dynamic Workload Console or the composer command. When you save the set of requirements, a new workstation is automatically created in the HCL Workload Automation database. This workstation is hosted by the workload broker workstation. This workstation maps all the dynamic agents in your environment that meet the requirements you specified. The resulting pool is dynamically updated whenever a new suitable agent becomes available. Jobs scheduled on this workstation automatically inherit the requirements defined for the workstation.