APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR MANAGING Z/OS BATCH JOBS WITH PREREQUISITES

• US 20070277174A1
• Filed: 05/25/2006
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Vera, Pedro Sanchez, Cai, Jin Song
• Granted Patent: US 8,572,616 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5017 Task decomposition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/506 Constraint
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for managing computer jobs with prerequisite jobs in a main frame computing system. A determination module is included that determines a job grouping of jobs for processing by a computer with a mainframe operating system. A grouping module is included to generate generating a job grouping structure associated with the job grouping. The job grouping structure comprises one or more prerequisite jobs and a dependent job that depends on successful completion of each prerequisite job associated with the dependent job. A management module is included to submit the jobs in the job grouping structure to the computer for processing. The jobs are submitted such that each prerequisite job of the dependent job successfully completes prior to submission of the dependent job.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having computer usable program code programmed to manage computer jobs with prerequisite jobs in a main frame computing system, the operations of the computer program product comprising:

determining a job grouping of jobs for processing by a computer with a mainframe operating system;

generating a job grouping structure associated with the job grouping, wherein the job grouping structure comprises one or more prerequisite jobs and a dependent job that depends on successful completion of each prerequisite job associated with the dependent job; and

submitting the jobs in the job grouping structure to the computer for processing, wherein the jobs are submitted such that each prerequisite job of the dependent job successfully completes prior to submission of the dependent job.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the mainframe operating system comprises a z/OS operating system.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the job grouping structure further comprises a composite job, wherein the composite job is both a dependent job for one or more prerequisite jobs and a prerequisite job for at least one dependent job and wherein submitting the jobs further comprises submitting the jobs such that each prerequisite job of the composite job successfully completes prior to submission of the composite job and the composite job successfully completes prior to submission of the at least one dependent job for which the composite job is a prerequisite job.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising generating a status structure indicating a status of processing of each job in the job grouping structure.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein generating a status structure further comprises periodically updating the status structure.

6. The computer program product of claim 4, further comprising reading the status structure and displaying the status of each job in the job grouping structure in response to user input.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising editing a job in the job grouping structure.

8. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising displaying a job output.

9. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising rerunning failed prerequisite jobs and dependent jobs associated with one or more failed prerequisite jobs.

10. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising reading the status structure and displaying the status of each job in the job grouping structure in response to user input and the status structure having an age less than a status age maximum.

11. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising generating a task list, wherein the task list comprises one or more job groupings;

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising reading the status structure of a plurality of job grouping structures within a task list and displaying the status of each job in each of the read job grouping structures in response to user input.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising reading the status structure of a plurality of job grouping structures within a plurality of task lists and displaying the status of each job in each of the read job grouping structures in response to user input.

14. A system to manage computer jobs with prerequisite jobs in a main frame computing system, the system comprising:

a computer with a mainframe operating system;

a user interface connected to the computer;

a display connected to the user interface;

a processor in the computer; and

a memory in the computer, the memory comprising

a task list module configured to generate a task list, wherein the task list comprises one or more job groupings;

a grouping module configured to generate a job grouping file associated with a job grouping in the task list, wherein the job grouping file comprises one or more prerequisite jobs and a dependent job that depends on successful completion of each prerequisite job associated with the dependent job and wherein the jobs are for processing by a computer with a mainframe operating system; and

a management module configured to submit the jobs in the job grouping file to the computer for processing, wherein the jobs are submitted such that each prerequisite job of the dependent job successfully completes prior to submission of the dependent job.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface is a computing device connected to the computer through a computer network, wherein the computing device comprises any of a terminal, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, and a workstation.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface supports an Interactive System Productivity Facility (“

ISPF”

) editor.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the mainframe operating system comprises a z/OS operating system.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising a status module configured to generate a status file indicating a status of processing of each job in the job grouping file.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising a monitor module configured to read the status file and to display a status of each job in the job grouping file in response to user input.

20. A method for managing computer jobs with prerequisite jobs in a main frame computing system, the method comprising:

obtaining a job management tool that manages dependent jobs with prerequisite jobs, the job management tool comprising

determining a job grouping of jobs for processing by a computer with a mainframe operating system;

generating a job grouping structure associated with the job grouping, wherein the job grouping structure comprises one or more prerequisite jobs and a dependent job that depends on successful completion of each prerequisite job associated with the dependent job; and

submitting the jobs in the job grouping structure to the computer for processing, wherein the jobs are submitted such that each prerequisite job of the dependent job successfully completes prior to submission of the dependent job;

deploying the job management tool; and

maintaining the job management tool.