Creating the groups, applications, and operations
About this task
You can create applications by using the ISPF panels.
This section shows you the steps involved in creating the Paymore applications using the HCL Workload Automation for Z panels. You can create all applications and groups by using the APPLICATION DESCRIPTION panel, but simple applications, having only one computer operation and optionally a job setup operation and another manual operation, can be created using the JOB DESCRIPTION panel.
- From the main menu, enter the fast path 1.4 to display the MAINTAINING APPLICATION DESCRIPTIONS panel (see EQQASUBP- Maintaining application descriptions ).
- Select option 2 to display the CREATING AN APPLICATION (EQQACGPP) panel:
- Type the fields as shown and press Enter. For more information about each field, see Creating an application and its operations.
- To schedule PAYDAILY, enter the RUN command to specify a run cycle. The RUN CYCLES panel, shown in Creating the run cycle for PAYDAILY, is displayed.
- Specify an input arrival time of 12.00. This time has two
main purposes:
- It identifies the occurrence of the application, differentiating
the midday run of PAYDAILY
from other runs on the same day. - It tells HCL Workload Automation for Z when to try to start the application, if it is time-dependent. Normally, you need not make applications time-dependent, because they run immediately after their predecessors. But PAYDAILY is an exception, because it is the first payroll job of the day, and is also responsible for triggering the closure of the CICSA payroll data set at midday.
- It identifies the occurrence of the application, differentiating
- Specify the deadline day and time, which is the latest
time that all operations in any occurrence of the application should
be completed by. HCL Workload Automation for Z takes various actions if an operation is not started by its deadline
time, depending on parameters that you specify. Day
0
and time16.00
means that the deadline is 16.00 on the same day as the input arrival time. - Type
R
for a normal rule. - The value of 4 for F day rule (the free-day rule) means that the application is not scheduled on free days in the calendar. This is not so important for PAYDAILY, because avoiding free days is part of the rule definition, but for other rules, such as Last Friday in the Month, it is important because HCL Workload Automation for Z needs to know what to do if Friday is Christmas Day, for example.
- Specify the in-effect and out-of-effect dates. If you leave these blank, HCL Workload Automation for Z fills them in with today's date and 71/12/31, 31 December 2071.
- Specify the JCL variable table that will be used on the days selected by this run cycle. The PAYDAILY JCL can have variables, promptable or nonpromptable. HCL Workload Automation for Z looks for values to substitute into the JCL in a variable table.
- Enter the
S
row command to specify the days that this rule will select. The MODIFYING A RULE panel, shown in Creating the rule for PAYDAILY, is displayed. - Select the fields shown so that HCL Workload Automation for Z schedules PAYDAILY every work day, and then press PF3 (End) to return to the RUN CYCLES panel.
- Press PF3 (End) again to return to the CREATING AN APPLICATION panel.
- Enter the OPER command. The OPERATIONS panel, shown in Creating
operations in PAYDAILY, is displayed.
The first operation, the WTO, causes message EQQW775I to be issued at midday with the operation text (
PAYX CLOSE data set
) as part of the message, which NetView® can then use as a CICS® transaction. - For each operation, type the workstation (Oper ws), operation number (Oper no.), and, if the workstation is a job setup, computer, or printer workstation, the name of the job or started task that the operation represents.
- Specify the estimated duration of each operation, which HCL Workload Automation for Z uses for planning purposes and also to judge whether an operation might finish late. HCL Workload Automation for Z can use the actual run times of PAYDAILY to adjust this estimate.
- Specify the job name. For batch and setup operations, HCL Workload Automation for Z uses this to find the JCL in the EQQJBLIB partitioned data set. A setup operation must have the same job name as the successor computer operation. A print operation must have the same job name as its predecessor, because this identifies the spool file that HCL Workload Automation for Z tracks.
- Enter the PRED command to specify the internal predecessors (the dependencies within this application). The panel shown in Specifying the predecessors for PAYDAILY operations is displayed.
- Specify the predecessors shown to tell HCL Workload Automation for Z that the setup operation and the WTO must come before the batch
PAYDAILY job.
The batch job, operation 020, also depends on CICSA successfully closing the payroll data set after getting the command from NetView®. This dependency, however, is handled using resources. While CICSA has the data set open, it has exclusive use of the resource PAYROLL.DATABASE. When the PAYX transaction successfully closes the data set, it executes the EQQUSIN subroutine to release the special resource. Then the PAYDAILY job can run as soon as the job preparation team has finished any manual JCL overrides and has completed the SETP operation.
- Specify the details of each operation by entering
s
beside the operation. The OPERATION DETAILS panel is displayed. - Specify option 3 (SPECIAL RES) to specify that the batch job must have exclusive use of the PAYROLL.DATABASE resource (see Creating special resources for details about using resources). Complete the fields shown in Specifying the payroll database as a resource and press PF3 (End).
- You never have to select option 2 (WS RES and SERV) for Paymore operations, because they do not use workstation fixed resources, and the default number of parallel servers is one, which is what you need.
- You do not need to specify a time for the operation (option 6),
because the default is for the operation to take the input arrival
time specified for the occurrence, which is what is needed for PAYDAILY.
But you must specify that the WTO operation is time-dependent. From
the OPERATION DETAILS menu, select option 4 (AUTOMATIC OPTIONS). The
JOB, WTO, AND PRINT OPTIONS panel, shown in Specifying that the WTO is time-dependent, is displayed.
Specify
y
in the TIME DEPENDENT field. Now HCL Workload Automation for Z will not try to start the WTO operation until 12.00. - Return to the CREATING AN APPLICATION panel by pressing PF3 (End), and press PF3 (End) twice again to save the new application description in the HCL Workload Automation for Z database. It will now be included in the long-term plan when you create it.
- GPAYW and GPAYM
- These are groups, so you specify run cycles for these, but no operations. Their applications (PAYW, PAYM1, and PAYM2) have operations, but no run cycles.
- Dependencies for PAYBACKP
- PAYBACKP must run after all scheduled payroll updates, so give it external dependencies to all of them. PAYBACKP will therefore depend on PAYTAXYR, for example, but the dependency will not take effect on the 364 days of the year when PAYTAXYR is not scheduled.
- Opening the CICSA payroll data set
- The last operation of PAYBACKP is a WTO that triggers a CICS® transaction to reopen the data set.
- Job setup for other operations
- There are no job setup operations other than for PAYDAILY. Normally, you do not need job setup, because most JCL variable substitution can be handled automatically with JCL variable tables, and in these cases HCL Workload Automation for Z edits the JCL and submits it when the job becomes ready.
- Tracking print operations
- Print operations are specified only for the payslip printing jobs, where it is important for HCL Workload Automation for Z to know if and when JES has finished printing. For these jobs, PAYWSLIP and PAYMSLIP, take care to specify the print form number and SYSOUT class when you specify the operation details. HCL Workload Automation for Z uses a key of job name, form number, and SYSOUT class to track the event, and this key must be unique, or HCL Workload Automation for Z might track the wrong spool data set. See Options that apply to print operations.
- Rule for the GPAYW run cycle
- EVERY THURSDAY of every YEAR. You can find equivalent rules, such
as:
- ONLY THURSDAY in every WEEK
- EVERY THURSDAY in every WEEK
- EVERY THURSDAY in every MONTH
Which one you specify does not matter. If you are unsure about the rule, use the GENDAYS command to check the selected days. Note that
EVERY FOURTH DAY in every WEEK
is not equivalent, because the day selected depends on whether free days are to be counted among the four days (the free day rule). - Rule for the GPAYM run cycle
- ONLY THIRD THURSDAY of every MONTH. For this run cycle, as for GPAYW and PAYTAXYR, you need free-day rule 1, so that the occurrence is scheduled on the previous work day if the Thursday is a holiday.
- Rule for the PAYTAXYR run cycle
- ONLY THIRD THURSDAY of every JULY.
- Rules for the on-demand jobs
- Do not specify rules for PAYRECOV, CICSA, and PAYQUERY. You can add these to the long-term or current plan when you need them.