Job scheduling options

The job schedule function allows for time-dependent scheduling of iSeries™ batch jobs. You can schedule jobs to be released from the job queue at a particular time, or you can use a job schedule entry to submit your job to the job queue automatically at the time you specify. Job scheduling allows you to control the date and time a batch job is submitted to or becomes eligible to start from a job queue. This flexibility can help you as you balance the work load on your system.

For example, you can use job scheduling to delegate the repetitive task of repeatedly submitting meeting notices, payroll, or weekly and monthly reports from your schedule to the system's schedule. There are four methods for scheduling a batch job.

• Management Central scheduler
  iSeries Navigator provides an integrated scheduler, the Management Central scheduler, to organize when you want your jobs to process. You have the option of choosing to perform a task immediately or choosing a later time. You can use the Management Central scheduler to schedule almost any task in Management Central.
• Advanced Job Scheduler
  The Advanced Job Scheduler licensed program (5722-JS1) is a robust scheduler that allows unattended job processing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This scheduling tool provides more calendar features and offers greater control over scheduled events than the Management Central scheduler. You can also view job completion history and manage notification of a job's status.
• Job schedule entries
  If your system does not have the Management Central Scheduler or the Advanced Job Scheduler, you can still schedule jobs using a job schedule entry, which is accessed from the character-based interface. Using this method you can schedule jobs to recur or to run only once.
• The submit job command
  This character-based interface command controls the time a job is released in the job queue. It is an easy way to schedule a job that only needs to run once. It allows you to use many of the job attributes defined for your current job.
• Job scheduler considerations
  When choosing a job scheduler product, you need to consider a variety of different features. The following is a list of features to consider when determining which job scheduler to use:
• Job scheduling and system availability
  If the system is powered down or in restricted state when scheduled times are reached, jobs cannot be submitted from job schedule entries and the status of scheduled jobs cannot be changed. However, you can control how the system handles this situation after the system IPL or after it comes out of restricted state.