Defining and managing run cycle groups

You can optionally define a run cycle group for your application instead of - or in addition to - a number of single run cycles.

A run cycle group is simply a list of run cycles that are combined together to produce a set of run dates.

There are multiple advantages in using run cycle groups. They are:
A run cycle group is a distinct database object
It is defined by itself and can be matched with one or more applications. It is not defined as part of a specific application like single run cycles.
The same run cycle group can be used on different applications
This improves the overall usability of the run cycles, since it is possible to specify the same run cycle group in multiple applications avoiding the need to have multiple run cycles definitions for the same scheduling rules.
Run cycle groups enhance the use of negative run cycles
Negative run cycles are used to generate negative occurrences, which identify the days when an application would normally be scheduled but is not required. A negative occurrence always cancels any matching positive occurrences and you can specify a negative occurrence only if the positive equivalent already exists. Run cycle groups add a good deal of flexibility by providing users with the possibility to apply the negative run cycles to a subset of the positive ones rather than to all of them. Thus, users can group their run cycles in subsets so that the negative run cycles can be applied only to the positive occurrences generated by the run cycles belonging to the same set.
Run cycle groups allow the use of a logical AND between individual run cycles in the group
This is achieved with the addition of two new run cycle types:
A
Rule-based run cycle. Select days when the application is to be run if they belong to all A types of the set of run cycles.
D
Exclusion rule-based run cycle. Select days when the application is NOT to be run if they belong to all D types of the set of run cycles.
For example, you can add two conditions together:
Run on Wednesday “AND” the 8th workday of the month.
In this way, the only scheduled date would be the 8th work day of the month, if it fell on a Wednesday.
Full compatibility with traditional run cycles
The traditional run cycles specified in the application definition can reference run cycle groups, with the possibility to specify shift or offsets on them (as it happens with periods).
Availability of the GENDAYS command at run cycle group level
In this way, you can check the result of the combination of all the run cycles in the group.

In the long term plan (LTP) run cycle groups are interpreted as non-cyclic periods with open intervals (no end dates) where the generated days are used as start dates for the intervals and where every interval starting from a generated day finishes at the next generated day. To ensure the proper operation of the run cycle group, the last interval should extend beyond the LTP end-date, so that it is closed by this date.

You can use the Dynamic Workload Console or the ISPF panels to define and manage run cycle groups. This guide documents the ISPF interface. The documentation about the equivalent actions on the Dynamic Workload Console is available in the online help of the console.