Enhanced shadow job integration

Shadow jobs facilitate the integration and synchronization of workloads across different engines.

A shadow job is defined on a local workstation to map a job running on different engines which can be distributed or z/OS engines. This mapping provides several benefits for managing hybrid workload automation environments:

Workload integration
Connects distributed and z/OS engines, ensuring they function as a single, coordinated system.
Automated dependency management
Ensures local jobs do not start until the corresponding remote job completes successfully, reducing the risk of data inconsistency.
Enhanced monitoring
Provides real-time status updates of remote jobs within the local plan, eliminating the need to switch between different console connections.
Customizable matching
Enables the selection of specific remote job instances based on scheduling dates or time intervals, ensuring precise dependency tracking.

In addition to these advantages, folder support is now available. You can use folders to organize objects by department, line of business, or environment (for example, /PROD/Finance/Payroll). Shadow jobs now support mapping to remote jobs stored within these folder structures. Folder management ensures a number of advantages:

Cross-engine synchronization
Enables local job streams to wait for the successful completion of remote processes before starting.
Folder-aware mapping
Supports remote jobs stored in folders. This enables the use of full folder paths to identify remote jobs, reducing naming conflicts in complex environments.
Unified visibility
Updates remote job statuses within the local plan, providing a single monitoring point for hybrid workflows.
Security alignment
Respects folder-based security models by enabling shadow jobs to target specific departmental workloads.
Prevention of naming conflicts
You can have multiple remote jobs with the same name (for example, CLEANUP) in different folders. Shadow jobs enable you to target the specific instance you need by providing the full folder path.
Granular access control
Because folders are often tied to security roles, supporting folders in shadow jobs ensures that cross-engine dependencies respect your organizational security boundaries.

For a full description of the key features and major use cases, see Shadow jobs.