MVP Systems - Support

Supported JAMS AgentX Operating Systems

DanielS — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:51:07 GMT

The following non-Windows operating systems are supported for JAMS AgentX:

Sun Microsystems SPARC based workstations and servers running the Solaris OS 2.6, 2.7 (7), and 2.8 (8)
HP-UX servers running OS version 11.11 and later
AIX server running AIX OS version 4.3 and later
Oracle OVM 3.0 and later
Oracle Linux 5.5 and later
Linux servers (x86 and x86_64) running Linux kernel 2.4.18-3 and later. Including:

Ubuntu 9.04 and later
openSUSE 11.1 and later
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 and later
Oracle Linux 5.5 and later

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.184

JohnV — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 07:41:28 GMT

This release includes:

A correction to the SQLStoredProc Execution Method to save changes to the job source. Previously, changes were not saved unless the authentication type was changed.
A correction when adding new job definitions through the Job Definition wizard to allow clicking "Edit...".
An enhancement to trigger definitions to wait for the triggered job to complete before resetting for trigger variable events, job events, and setup events.
Added support for drop down lists for agent nodes in job\setup submit options.
Added drop down for username in file events of trigger definitions.
An enhancement to SQLCommand, SQLStoresProc, and SSISDirect execution methods to display results result of SQL queries to the job log.
Added support for the Symitar add-on including Workflow Activities for Symitar.
A correction to avoid "ExecuteNonQuery requires an open..." error message when submitting a setup that contains jobs that have reports.
An enhancement to add a scrollbar to About--> Server status.

Added support for PSExecutionPolicyPreference parameter.
Added support for ErrorActionPreference parameter.
A correction for deleting an agent. The JAMSScheduler service no longer need to be restarted to fully deleted the Agent listing.
Added support for SQL execution methods to now support :connect, :setvar, :out, :ON ERROR and $(VAR) substitution.
A correction to SQL execution methods to use V2.0 of the .NET Framework.
A correction for jobs that have multiple threads writing to the log file and was being run via a JAMS Agent, a synchronization issue could cause the connection to fail and it would continue failing when we reconnected.
A correction for complex setups that include jobs that have file dependencies that could result in a deadlock.

Regarding the "PSExecutionPolicyPreference" and "ErrorActionPreference" parameters, these were added to all of the PowerShell execution methods but, only on a new install. We don't change existing installations.

The PSExecutionPolicyPreference sets the execution policy for the job, this will eliminate the issue of having to do a Set-ExecutionPolicy before PowerShell jobs will work. The ErrorActionPreference is set to "Stop" so that PowerShell jobs fail if they hit an error.

Disabling JAMS Server to Agent Authentication

ChrisW — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:14:16 GMT

You may encounter a situation in JAMS where submitting a Job that runs on a JAMS Agent results in that Job's log file showing an error like the one below:

Exception while authenticating Agent Socket:
The server has rejected the client credentials.
The logon attempt failed

When JAMS runs a Job on an Agent, the Agent asks that JAMS authenticateitself. JAMS first tries using the account that the JAMS Executor serviceis running under (usually Local System), and if that doesn't work we tryusing the account that the Job is going to run under (list on Submit Options tab of Job properties).

This error can occur in rare environments where both of these fail, perhaps due to a possibleconfiguration issue in Windows, or when the Job is attempting to run on an Agent machine that is in itsown Workgroup.

The first step when you see this error is to verify that the account that the Job should run under on that Agent machine is correct.

If you are still seeing the error after confirming that the Job is running under the proper credentials, the authentication between JAMS and the Agent can be disabled so that the Job will be allowed to start. To do so, edit the User.config file located on the JAMS Agent machine or the Common.config file located on the JAMS Scheduler machine:

JAMS Agent User.config - Edit this file if you would like todisable authentication between the Server and Agent for only that onespecific JAMS Agent. This file is located on the JAMS Agent machine inthe Program Files/MVPSI/JAMS/Agent directory.

JAMS Scheduler Common.config - Edit this file if you would like to disable authentication between the Server and Agents for all Agents. The file is located on the JAMS Scheduler machine in the Program Files/MVPSI/JAMS/Scheduler directory.

When editing the file, change the DisableAuthentication key value from 0 to 1 to disable it. If the DisableAuthentication key does not exist (for example, if editing the Common.config on the Scheduler machine), you can add it to the existing Common.config file using the following syntax:

<add key="DisableAuthentication" value="1"/>

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.171

ChrisW — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:59:56 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to resolve an issue where the SubmittedBy property of a JAMS Job/Setup would always return the JAMS Client Username, even if a different user account was specified in the Servers Authentication tab.

An enhancement to clear File and Mail watches when a File or Email Trigger is changed. Previously, if you copied a Trigger and then changed the file/email that the Trigger was watching for, the Trigger may have still fired if the original file/email arrived.
An enhancement to the process of passing Parameters to a Job that are not defined in the Job itself. For example, if the Parameter was a .NET DateTime, it was previously being made a JAMS Date Parameter, stripping off the time. It is now made a DateTime to preserve the time aspect of the Parameter's value.
An enhancement to the display of the Elapsed Time column in the History View.
An enhancement to set the command timeout for the SQLCommand, SQLStoredProc, OdbcCommand, and OleDbCommand Execution Methods by adding an integer Parameter named JAMSCommandTimeout with a value of the desired timeout on the Parameters tab of the Execution Method. The default without the Parameter is unlimited.

An enhancement to correct a situation where using Wait-JAMSEntry could cause a Job to stay in the monitor if the JAMS Server that submitted the Job did not match the JAMS Server that was executing the Job that you were waiting on.
An enhancement to resolve an issue that arose when a Workflow Job would go idle and shut down. When it was reactivated, the start time was set to the reactivation time. It now remains the original start time.
An enhancement to resolve an issue where the SQLStoredPoc was always using SQL 2005.
An enhancement to allow the SSISDirect Execution Method to now force the Job to use SQL 2005 or SQL 2008 by adding a Parameter named JAMSSQLVersion with a value of 2005 or 2008 (as a text string).

An enhancement to prevent a rare "Unable to save preferences" exception when JAMS Client is starting.
An enhancement to preserve Parameters in a SQLStoredProc Job when the stored procedure is modified.
An enhancement to allow for specifying both a date and time for date parameters when selecting the query options for a JAMS report.
An enhancement to correct timeout issues when running detail reports in a batch Job.
Added Email Activities to the Workflow Execution Method Jobs

Running Oracle Jobs

DanielS — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 03:51:25 GMT

JAMS runs Oracle batch Jobs through the use of SQLPlus. SQLPlus is the equivalent to SQLCMD.exe in Microsoft SQL Server. JAMS has the ability to handle native Oracle commands on both UNIX-based and Windows-based Oracle.

JAMS supports running jobs on Oracle database versions:
Oracle9i Database Release 1: (patchset as of December 2003)
Oracle9i Database Release 2: (patchset as of April 2007)
Oracle Database 10g Release 1: (patchset as of February 2006)
Oracle Database 10g Release 2: (patchset as of April 2010)
Oracle Database 11g Release 1: (patchset as of September 2008)
Oracle Database 11g Release 2: (patchset as of September 2011)

For UNIX-based Oracle installations, JAMS can execute native Oracle commands through the normal UNIX shell.
For Example:

$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [orcl] ? orcl
$ sqlplus daniels/tiger

For Windows-based Oracle installation, JAMS can handle SQLPlus language by simply calling SQLPlus.exe within a normal Windows Command Procedure Execution Method.
For example:

Sqlplus.exe daniels/tiger@orcl

The best way to secure SQLPlus is to use external authentication. To do that, your init.ora needs to contain these lines:

remote_os_authent = true
os_authent_prefix = OPS$

Then, the SQLPlus command line would be something like:

plus33w.exe / thesqlfile.sql

Then, if you are logged on as user JOE, Oracle will look for a database user OPS$JOE.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.161

ChrisW — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:45:12 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to correct a NullReference exception when some columns were not visible in the Monitor View.
An enhancement to add a version command to the JAMS Web Client.
An enhancement to add a default connection string for the SQL execution methods.
An enhancement to correct database upgrade issues on SQL installation that are case-sensitive.
An enhancement to correct duplicate nodes in the Agent list from appearing, one for "localhost" and one for the Primary Engine name.
An enhancement to correct Notification from Setup Job definitions. When notification was specified in the properties of a Setup Job (Setup properties > Jobs tab > Job properties), that notification was not being processed.
An enhancement to resolve an issue where using a new JAMS Client (v5.3.x and above) with an old JAMS Server (v5.2.x and below) would cause History inquiries to fail.
Additional "File Transfer Session" activities have been added to the Workflow Execution Method to allow for complex file transfer workflows.

Auditing/Rollback of Jobs in JAMS

ChrisW — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:59:05 GMT

You may encounter a situation where a change has been made to one of your Job definitions, but you are not completely sure what those changes were. You may need to also revert back to a previous version of your Job definition due to a problem from a recent change. This can all be accomplished within the JAMS Client Interface.

In the JAMS Shortcut bar, click on the Audit shortcut. You can perform a Query (button in the Client ribbon-bar) for the time period of changes that you would like to see:

Once you have a list of your Job/Setups/etc., you can then right-click on a Job, for example, and select "Revisions" to view a new window with all of the revisions of that Job definition.

You can select any of the versions of the Job definition and then compare those two versions by clicking the Compare button. You will see any differences in Job properties between the two version will be highlighted in red. In addition, you can select any of the versions and click the "Revert To" button to revert back to that version of the Job.

These Audit features give you quick and easy version controlling of your Jobs built in to JAMS, with the ability to roll back to previous versions when needed.

Managing JAMS for high Job volumes

ChrisW — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:53:43 GMT

If you encounter a situation where you are running a very large number of Jobs per day through JAMS (10's of thousands to 100's of thousands), you may want to think about how the log files for those Jobs are being stored, as well as the SQL database back-end edition you are using, to avoid potential problems from arising.

JAMS Job/Setup Log Files:

By default, JAMS stores all Job/Setup log files in a default directory that is assigned in the Configuration Settings within the JAMS Client. To see this setting, go to the Configuration shortcut in the JAMS shortcut bar and then look at the DefaultLogLocation setting. This can be modified to be any directory available to the JAMS Server.

However, you can easily have too many files in a directory, as an NTFS file directory will not function properly if you have hundreds of thousands of files in that directory. In this case, it is best to spread out the log files for your JAMS Jobs and Setups into multiple directories. You can specify a loglocation in your System definitions, Job definitions, and Setupdefinitions by going to the properties of each and accessing the "Log Options" tab. Setting the log location at the System level will set that location as the default for all Jobs and Setups within that System. This can then be overridden at the individual Job or Setup level by setting an alternate location in their "Log Options" tab.

Even when spreading your log files out over multiple directories, keeping them in check may require the use of the JAMSPurgeHistory Job that installs with JAMS. This Job will remove all history records and log files for any items that do not fall within the specified parameter values when you run the Job. The parameters used are as follows:

MINROWS (default value = 1) - The minimum number of history records to keep for each job.
MAXROWS (default value = 30) - The maximum number of history records to keep for each job.
DAYS (default value = 30) - The maximum number of days to keep a history record.

You can then schedule this JAMSPurgeHistory Job to run on a regular basis, keeping the total number of history records that you are keeping to the minimum needed.

SQL Server edition:

The next thing you want to look at is the edition of SQL Server that you are using for the JAMS database. If you don't have your own SQL Server installed anywhere when you initially install JAMS, JAMS will install SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. That will use only a single processor and has a 4GB database size limit. If you get close to the 4GB maximum size, you can upgrade to SQL Server Express 2008 R2 for free, which has a database size limit of 10GB. Other full editions of SQL (non-Express) that you may be running the JAMS Database on should not have any problems as you can have larger database sizes.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.158

ChrisW — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:12:37 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to allow Parameters to be added at the System definition level. These System level parameters will then be picked up and used by all Jobs that belong to that System

An enhancement to allow for Schedule Priority Modifier values greater than 100.
An enhancement to resolve an issue with importing Triggers using the Import-JAMSXml cmdlet
An enhancement to add a new SQLCommand execution method which makes it easier to run SQL scripts.
An enhancement to add a new OleDbCommand execution method which makes it easier to run database scripts for non-SQL Server databases.
An enhancement to add a new ODBCDbCommand execution method, which makes it easier to run database scripts for non-SQL Server databases.
An enhancement to add a new SQLStoredProc execution method which makes is easier to execute a SQL stored procedure and includes support for output parameters.

An enhancement to add the ability to see the details of a Workflow execution method Job as it is executing

An enhancement to add the ability to see the details of a workflow in JAMS history. The JAMS Job Log file and Audit Trail tabs within the Job history details show each step of the Workflow and its completion details. Additionally, you can view the Workflow diagram and the completion status of each step of the diagram (just as when it is executing) from the Workflow tab of the Job History details.
An enhancement to add support for sending commands to workflows as they execute.
An enhancement to add many new Workflow editor activities, including:

Activity Name	Purpose
AskQuestion	Programmatically allows application to ask and receive a reply to an answer
GetVariable<T>	Retrieves a value of a JAMS variable
ManagedActivity	Provides Retry options for other activities
Repeat	Allows an activity to repeat according to certain time Intervals
SetJAMSContext	Defines a Server Location
SetVariable	Assigns a value to a JAMS variable
Submit	Submits a JAMS job/setup
TimeLimit	Allows an activity to have a time limit set for its execution
CMDScript	Allows the execution of a script using cmd.exe
ODBCScript	Allows the connection to and execution of an ODBC database script.
OleDBScript	Allows the connection to and execution of an OleDB database script.
SQLScript	Allows the connection to and execution of an SQL database script.
ExecuteCMD	Allows workflow to execute a line of command with or without parameters
ExecuteProcess	Executes any process
SendEmail	Sends email messages to recipients (To, CC, BCC) with/out attachments
ProcessFiles	Defines one or more files to be processed
UnzipFiles	Unzips one zip file
WaitForFile	Responds to a file’s presence, absence or availability
ZipFiles	Zips up one or more files
FTPDownload	Standard FTP Download of one or more files
FTPUpload	Standard FTP Upload of one or more files
SFTPDownload	Secure FTP Download of one or more files
SFTPUpload	Secure FTP Upload of one or more files
ScpDownload	Secure Copy Download of one or more files
ScpUpload	Secure Copy Upload of one or more files

Recommended Minimum Server Specifications

DanielS — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:36:16 GMT

Hardware Server Specifications for JAMS Scheduler:

Processor: 1GHz (x86 or x64)

Memory: 1GB

Disk Space: 1GB (in addition to the disk space required by the O/S)

These are the minimum system requirements andwill support running thousands of jobs per day. Heavy loads (i.e. 100,000jobs per day) will require more resources.

For database planning, our test lab runs approximately 1,000 jobs/day through one instance of JAMS. Retaining 30 days of data will create a database equal to 110Mb in size.

Running 100,000 per day:

Based upon customer implementations where more than 100,000 jobs run each day, the JAMS installation should consist of:

Two Windows Servers, each with Dual Quad 2.0 GHz CPUs and 32 GB of RAM (or more).

One of the above servers hosts the JAMS Scheduler while the second server is for SQL Server. Note that the SQL Server also has multiple high-speed SCSI drives.

Hardware Server Specifications for JAMS Agent:

Processor: 1GHz (x86 or x64)

Memory: 1GB

Disk Space: 5 MB

Hardware Server Specifications for JAMS Client:

Processor: 1GHz (x86 or x64)

Memory: 1GB

Disk Space: 50 MB

Virtualization Support

MVP Systems Software, Inc. confirms that we will support customers running JAMS on any supported Operating Systems in a virtualized environment, such as VMware and HyperV.

Failover Scheduling Engine Installation

DanielS — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:30:06 GMT

Here are the basic instructions for installing a JAMS Failover server:

Install the first Primary JAMS Scheduler.
If you want redundant databases, configure a SQL Server mirror of the JAMS Database.
Stop the JAMS Scheduler service on the Primary Engine.
Install the JAMS Scheduler on the second node; when prompted for the database server, specify the same SQL Server, Instance, and database name as the first server. You will receive a dialog that says “Database already exists.” Click “Use Database.”
Stop the JAMS Scheduler service on the second machine.
Create\Edit the Failover.config file in the X:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\Scheduler directory.
Copy the Failover.config to both machines. Failover.config should be identical on both machines.
Start the JAMS Scheduler service on both machines.

Here is a sample Failover.config:

<FailoverConfig>
<Primary>Server1</Primary>
<Secondary>Server2</Secondary>
<Port>4773</Port>
<Interval>60</Interval>
</FailoverConfig>

It is also necessary to add a user to the JAMS database to allow the Secondary engine to connect. This can be done by running the following SQL statements on the JAMS database.
(Note: You will need to replace the login name with your machine name.)

exec sp_grantlogin @loginame='YourDomain\YourMachineName$'

exec sp_grantdbaccess @loginame='YourDomain\YourMachineName$', @name_in_db='JAMSMachine2'

exec sp_addrolemember @rolename='JAMSApp', @membername='JAMSMachine2'

Export and Import with the JAMS.exe Command Line Environment

ChrisW — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:07:12 GMT

The JAMS Command Line Environment (JAMS.exe) allows you to export and import Job and Setup definitions in JAMS, in addition to many other capabilities. Before reading further, please refer to the following link for some basic information on using the JAMS.exe Command Line Environment:

http://www.jamssupport.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50074.aspx

In this example, we will discuss exporting and importing Job definitions. They will be exported and imported in an XML file format.

To export an existing JAMS Job definition:

1. Go to Program Files/MVPSI/JAMS/Client and run JAMS.exe.
2. At the JAMS> prompt, enter Set Server servername, where servername is the name of the JAMS Server from which the Jobs will be exported.
3. At the JAMS> prompt, enter Export Job JobName /Output=file.xml /System=SystemName where JobName is the name of the Job to be exported and file.xml is the name of the file to which you want the Job definition saved. Once the server is set from step 2, you do not need to set it again for each export unless you wish to export from another JAMS Server or you restart JAMS.exe.

To import a JAMS Job definition that is currently in a properly formatted XML file:

1. Go to Program Files/MVPSI/JAMS/Client and run JAMS.exe.
2. Copy the XML file(s) into the directory from item 1 above.
3. At the JAMS> prompt, enter Set Server servername, where servername is the name of the JAMS Server to which the Jobs will be imported.
4. At the JAMS> prompt, enter Import file.xml, where file.xml is the name of the file to be imported. Once the server is set from step 3, you do not need to set it again for each import unless you wish to import to another JAMS Server or you restart JAMS.exe.

Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 2008 Security

ChrisW — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:45:38 GMT

Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows 2008 R2 have enhanced security to restrict the activities normally performed by an administrator account.

You must be an administrator account to access the Access Control and Configuration areas of the Management tab. If you're running any of these versions of Windows, you must right-click on the JAMS icon in the Start Menu and pick "Run as Administrator" in order to have full administrative rights.

Clicking on the Properties menu item and then going to the Compatibility tab will allow you to select to always run this program as an Administrator.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.148

ChrisW — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:27:13 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to address and issue where telling a Job to ignore its Resource requirements would result in the Job executing on the Scheduler node instead of an Agent Node specified in a Batch Queue.
An enhancement to address an issue where a JAMS Trigger would fire as soon as it was created.
An enhancement to address an issue where JAMSXMHost.dll was not being updated, causing the JAMS Reports execution method to not be updated when JAMS is upgraded.
An enhancement to address an issue where database transactions could fail under certain circumstances.

Deploying JAMS Agents

phils — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:03:29 GMT

The JAMS Primary Engine comes complete with the ability to remotely install a JAMS Agent on any Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX, System I (AS400), or HPUX operating system.

Just specify the target server and account to use, and JAMS will automatically deploy the Agent to the remote system. This is done by adding the DeployAgent job to the Schedule.

JAMS Agents can also be manually installed. For more information, please visit the following links:

Windows Agents
JAMS AgentX (Linux/Unix)

How do I set the SMTP Server?

ChrisW — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:29:42 GMT

In the JAMS Client, on the "JAMS" tab of the ribbon bar, click the "Configuration" shortcut in the shortcut bar on the left. This will display a list of configuration settings. Find the setting named "SMTPServer" and double-click it to open the properties dialog. Enter the name of your SMTP server under the "Value" tab.

You can also set the SMTP server in the .NET Framework Machine.config file. This will apply to all applications on that machine which use the .NET Framework SmtpClient class (unless overridden). The Machine.config file is located in the C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727\Config directory. There is also a Machine.config.comments file in that directory which contains some documentation.

An example of specifying the SMTP configuration is:

<system.net>
<mailSettings>
<smtp deliveryMethod="Network">
<network defaultCredentials="false" port="25" host="your.host.name.com" />
</smtp>
</mailSettings>
</system.net>

JAMSWebClient

jays — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:49:57 GMT

JAMSWebClient

JAMSWebClient lets you change JAMS variables, and submit jobs, remotely over a secure channel.
To use it, use JAMS to deploy an agent to a system (see "Deployment"), then run the "JAMSWebClient" command. You will get a "jams>" prompt which you can use to run commands.

Agent Deployment

To use JAMSWebClient on a Linux/UNIX system, you must first deploy it. This is deployed along with JAMSAgentX. See Agent Deployment.

IIS Deployment

Install JAMS WebServices through the official installer. It will create a directory at C:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\WebServices containing the JAMS web services.

Open IIS. This article uses IIS 7.0, but the process should be similar in IIS 6.0.
Add a Site (right on Sites, choose "Add Web Site") :
In the dialog, give the Site a name, and for the physical path type "C:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\WebServices" :

Click "OK".
If you don’t already have one installed to IIS, you’ll need to install a certificate. Click on the IIS server name, and find the "Server Certificates" icon:

You should create or import a certificate here. If you choose to use a self-signed certificate, extra steps will need to be taken later to confirm that you trust the certificate.
Change the application pool for the site. Click on the Site, and then click on "Basic Settings…"

For "Application Pool", choose "Classic .NET AppPool" :
Add an HTTPS binding. Click on "Bindings…" (right above "Basic Settings…") :

Then click "Add…" :

Click the "Type" dropdown and choose "https". Then click the "SSL certificate" dropdown and choose your certificate :

Click "OK". Close the Bindings dialog.
Now, enable HTTPS. Click "Advanced Settings…" :

Then in the dialog, change the "Enabled Protocols" field to "https" :

Click "OK".

Self-signed Certificate Trust

If you are using a self-signed certificate in IIS, you’ll see the following error when running a JAMSWebClient command :

org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: javax.net.ssl.SSLException: Connection has been shutdown: javax.net.ssl.SSLException: 
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unexpected error: java.security.InvalidAlgorithmParameterException: the trustAnchors parameter must be non-empty

This occurs because JAMSWebClient has no way to verify that your server’s certificate is trustworthy.
You can force it to trust your server's certificate by running the following on your Linux/UNIX machine:

sh /usr/local/JAMSWebClient/cert-retrieve.sh SERVER.IP.ADDRESS.OR.HOSTNAME

Then, as root :

mv trustcert.jks /usr/local/JAMSWebClient/

Configuration

For all JAMSWebClient commands, you’ll specify which JAMS server to connect to, and supply a Windows username and password.
You can supply the server, username, and password as arguments each time you run a command, or preset them in the JAMSWebClient configuration file.
JAMSWebClient looks for the configuration file at "~/.JAMSWebClient.config", and uses it if it exists.

The format of the configuration file is as follows:

server=SERVER.IP.ADDRESS.OR.HOSTNAME
username=DOMAIN\\USER
password=PASSWORD

Note that you must escape backslashes in the configuration file, i.e., use "\\" instead of "\". This applies to command arguments, as well!

(Warning!! Be sure to change permissions of the configuration file to hide read permissions from others!)

Setting Variables

To change the value of a variable, use the "setVariable" command:

Usage: setVariable <name> <value> [ -server VALUE ] [ -username VALUE ] [ -password VALUE ]
        name : Name of the variable to set the value of.
        value : Value to set the variable to.
        server : URL prefix of JAMS service.
        username : Username to use to connect to server.
        password : Password to use to connect to server.

For example, to set the variable "teststring" to "this is a test value", run :

jams>setVariable teststring "this is a test value"

(This assumes you’ve created the variable "teststring" in JAMS, and have properly configured your JAMSWebClient configuration file.)

Getting Variables

To retrieve the value of a variable, use the "getVariable" command:

Usage: getVariable  [ -server VALUE ] [ -username VALUE ] [ -password VALUE ]
        name : Name of the variable to get the value of.
        server : URL prefix of JAMS service.
        username : Username to use to connect to server.
        password : Password to use to connect to server.

For example, to show the value of the variable "teststring", run:

jams>getVariable teststring

(This assumes you’ve created the variable "teststring" in JAMS, and have properly configured your JAMSWebClient configuration file.)

Submitting Jobs

To submit a job or setup, use the "submit" command:

Usage: submit <name> [ -job ] [ -setup ] [ -hold ] [ -debug ] [ -useenv ] [ -saveentry ] [ -queue VALUE ] [ -agent VALUE ] [ -after VALUE ] [ -dependson VALUE ] [ -server VALUE ] [ -username VALUE ] [ -password VALUE ]
        name : The name of the Job or Setup to be submitted.
        job : Specifies that the name is a Job name.
        setup : Specifies that the name is a Setup name.
        hold : Holds the Job until it is manually released.
        debug : Used for testing Jobs. Dependencies are not satisfied. The Job will run under the user who submitted it.
        useenv : Specifies that environment variables will be used as the default values of parameters.
        saveentry : Temporarily save the value of this job's JAMSEntry.
        queue : Specifies the batch queue that the job will be submitted to.
        agent : Used to specify the node name where this job's execution request should be sent. This node must be running the JAMS Agent or, if this is an rexec job, an rexec server.
        after : The Job will be held until this time.
        dependson : Wait for other jobs to complete before starting the job.
        server : URL prefix of JAMS service.
        username : Username to use to connect to server.
        password : Password to use to connect to server.

For example, to submit a job named "Sample Job":

jams>submit "Sample Job"

To submit a setup named "Sample Setup":

jams>submit "Sample Setup" -setup

(Again, these examples assume you’ve created the job you’re trying to run, and have properly configured your JAMSWebClient configuration file.)

JAMS GnuPG Samples

jays — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:09:08 GMT

JAMS GnuPG Samples

This article shows how to create jobs that take advantage of GnuPG’s ability to encrypt/decrypt/sign/verify files. To make use of these, Gpg4Win must first be installed and configured.

Passphrases

When doing encryption, decryption, or digital signing, GnuPG will request a passphrase through a popup dialog. For unattended jobs, this is almost always undesired behavior, since it usually results in a blocked job, waiting for a user to respond to the dialog. To prevent this, one can remove a passphrase from their private key, so no passphrase will be requested. You can remove a passphrase from a key by running “gpg --passwd <<keyname>>”, and supplying a blank passphrase.

User IDs

Certain GnuPG commands will require you to specify users (e.g., which user you are encrypting a message for). A user refers to anyone who owns a public/private key pair. To perform a GnuPG command that requires a certain user as an argument, or to decrypt (or verify) a file from a certain user, you’ll first need to import that user’s public key into your keyring. To do this:

Obtain their public key file, e.g., bob.pub
Run “gpg --import bob.pub” to import the public key

A user can be specified several different ways; e.g., by key id, fingerprint, OpenPGP user ID, email address, rfc2253 DN, keygrip, name, or substring match. This article simply sticks to email addresses. You can always run “gpg --list-keys” to view all of the users’ public keys you’ve currently imported, along with associated email addresses. In this article, the <<keyname>> parameter identifies one’s own key, and <<recipient>> identifies another user’s key.

Encrypting Files

Before encrypting a file, you must first know who you want to encrypt it for (this can be yourself)--only they will be able to decrypt it. This is the <<RECIPIENT>> parameter.

Here is a job that will encrypt a file, <<INPUT_FILE>>, and store the result in <<OUTPUT_FILE>>:

Job name and description:

Job definition:

Job parameters:

Sample job submission:

Sample input file :

01234 this is a test 56789

Sample output file :

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (MingW32)hQEMA/s5cwsJ2FkeAQgAtG00ToyH/Tvx5vDv+uwsDL9aXN6TYPDKHncAV7dpDfsnentfi0CGDRBfOf1vArH9OUQyFmOOIl77OAhgcU+ydNWyGS7rOreELURDgYQr2qinevw9kLBVAqjSvtLFzRS1z3EmsECL2DklU7SLWkR4BdY8SCdZIiT/g4aAubUaZbu6eIoTDBk4tC2zYYumVT1eWxNe971jlzQjXf1EFMGoYmgb/8paZ1liQ65MgxT9uc4UHtskPuz9Jmx06z6SXeBCcjA/o81rJ66A7rJOk8YRGapEh+l8fFyhrlnsEKTxualvH89S6vRM0fJJhFjqvSn7t/xkWI+NNUWRlpeRd86yKtJeAWq9khNOU5NCj4xTmCbYgYVRMDuIqzvLwMWItvMe7ube02hpW1fbaR+et8a6MRrYXAgVM4wg53jVDDmrqp4e3xY9NYrVam5zEIofIyfCu9or0rPXO05Kx5UDIEtQJg===RMom-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

Decrypting Files

You can decrypt a file only if it was encrypted for you.

Here is a job that will decrypt a file, <<INPUT_FILE>>, and store the unencrypted message in <<OUTPUT_FILE>>:

Job name and description:

Job definition:

Job parameters:

Sample job submission:

Sample input file :

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (MingW32)hQEMA/s5cwsJ2FkeAQgAtG00ToyH/Tvx5vDv+uwsDL9aXN6TYPDKHncAV7dpDfsnentfi0CGDRBfOf1vArH9OUQyFmOOIl77OAhgcU+ydNWyGS7rOreELURDgYQr2qinevw9kLBVAqjSvtLFzRS1z3EmsECL2DklU7SLWkR4BdY8SCdZIiT/g4aAubUaZbu6eIoTDBk4tC2zYYumVT1eWxNe971jlzQjXf1EFMGoYmgb/8paZ1liQ65MgxT9uc4UHtskPuz9Jmx06z6SXeBCcjA/o81rJ66A7rJOk8YRGapEh+l8fFyhrlnsEKTxualvH89S6vRM0fJJhFjqvSn7t/xkWI+NNUWRlpeRd86yKtJeAWq9khNOU5NCj4xTmCbYgYVRMDuIqzvLwMWItvMe7ube02hpW1fbaR+et8a6MRrYXAgVM4wg53jVDDmrqp4e3xY9NYrVam5zEIofIyfCu9or0rPXO05Kx5UDIEtQJg===RMom-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

Sample output file :

01234 this is a test 56789

Creating Digital Signatures

A digital signature is verifiable by anyone who knows your public key.

To create a digital signature for the file <<INPUT_FILE>>, and store the result in <<OUTPUT_FILE>>:

Job name and description:

Job definition:

Job parameters:

Sample job submission:

Sample input file :

01234 this is a test 56789

Sample output file :

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (MingW32)owEBWgGl/pANAwACAcL5GpLpawEXAawqYgpzYW1wbGUudHh0TlfiWjAxMjM0IHRoaXMgaXMgYSB0ZXN0IDU2Nzg5iQEcBAABAgAGBQJOV+JaAAoJEML5GpLpawEXpyYH/AzjUPfgSiytWNwpfQlO12T4YJb3g2QWDOoRhiB6kF3lckjipYbFPnRD2+76IuX4A2izNlznAF9f3TaDd2P9oZ+jYRhfQ6uAAdRIYlMdamEAe7t9V0uy+jsva8HrnJLoGWECJH6yraog5GBOTJu5h++91vrk3PmagWOKaA3KE4djcKzcGO8fa/qEsLaD7yXZSR9a85zvHJ44gouQYf7C+WhKJIzhmza9G6jEn+qfqBiUPYrPSY+rGE1HbqhGgGCzPIxGYJgsI9H2+IhavwU6kMJbMr8+7hwe7MoDtpRbm1scUYNAOu6yVI+CkjntSnG3FpaJALcghpJ3F9GxyNypSCY==Xh1p-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

Verifying Signatures

To verify that the signature <<SIGNATURE_FILE>> is valid for the file <<INPUT_FILE>>:

Job name and description:

Job definition:

Job parameters:

Sample job submission:

Sample job output :

gpg: enabled debug flags: memstatgpg: Signature made 08/26/11 15:01:33 Eastern Daylight Time using RSA key ID E96B0117gpg: Good signature from "Jay Sullivan "
random usage: poolsize=600 mixed=0 polls=0/0 added=0/0
              outmix=0 getlvl1=0/0 getlvl2=0/0
secmem usage: 0/32768 bytes in 0 blocks

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.146

ChrisW — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 05:42:15 GMT

The JAMS v5.3.146 release includes:

An enhancement to address and issue where copying an Execution Method would not copy the Parameters or Template of the original Execution Method.
An enhancement to address an issue where RESET SCHEDULE did not work on a case-sensitive database.
An enhancement to address and issue where JD Edwards and Crystal Reports Execution Method properties had "Host Locally" check box selected.
An enhancement to Load Balancing across multiple Agent Nodes in Queues to sort those Agent Nodes in the correct order.

The following apply to both JAMS v5.3.146 and JAMS v4.9.167:

An enhancement to the Notify Options for Jobs to allow the "% of average" notification options to operate properly.
An enhancement to address an issue where a possible deadlock could occur when reconnecting to a JAMS Agent.
An enhancement to address a Queue synchronization issue when a Queue is modified.

Return the Forecasted Scheduling in PowerShell

DanielS — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:13:53 GMT

You can access the JAMS PowerShell provider to return a forecasted schedule in PowerShell.

$_srvobj = [mvpsi.jams.server]::getserver( "localhost" )

$_jobs = [MVPSI.JAMS.Schedule]::find( "*" , "*" , $( get-date "08-07-2011" ) , $( get-date "08-08-2011" ) , "CURRENT" , $_srvobj )

foreach ( $_scheduleEntry in $_jobs )

{

write-host ( $_scheduleEntry.EntryName + " " +$_scheduleEntry.HoldTime.ToString() + " " + $_scheduleEntry.Job.JobName )

}

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.143

ChrisW — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:38:06 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to allow using JAMS Variable references in File and Mail Trigger events and File dependencies. You simply need to enclose the Variable name in <<>> or {}. You can use a Variable reference in any text field in a File dependency or File or Mail Trigger event.
An enhancement to address an issue that would cause a job to run via the JAMS Agent when it was running on the local scheduler machine.
An enhancement to add additional logging when a SQL Transaction fails.
An enhancement to the JAMSDBA PURGE HISTORY command to support specifying a timeout value.

Can a Trigger submit a job each time a file arrives?

JohnV — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:31:56 GMT

A common requirement is to create a trigger that fires when a file arrives and submits a job that processes the file and then resets the trigger. This is simple, straight forward and reliable when you have a single file arriving but, what about the case when you could have many files arriving at the same time? How can JAMS handle that case?

This example will show you how you can combine JAMS' triggers and PowerShell snap-in to create a simple, straight forward and reliable system for handling this case.

First, we'll create a job to handle the incoming files. This is the job that the trigger will fire and, it's the most interesting piece of this example. Here is the PowerShell source for the job:

##  Add the JAMS PowerShell snapin#Add-PSSnapin MVPSI.JAMS -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue##  Get all of the files that match what the trigger file event is looking for#$fileList = Get-ChildItem C:\Incoming\*.dat
#

#  Create an array where we will save the JAMS Entry number of job we submit

#

$entryList = @()

##  Submit a JAMS Job to process each of the files#foreach ($file in $fileList){    #    # get the filename from the file object    #    $filename = $file.FullName    #    #  Submit the ProcessFile job.  This job must have a parameter named "filename"    #  The "-UseVariables" parameter tells Submit-JAMSEntry to look for a PowerShell    #  Variable that matches each parameter in the job and use the variable value    #  as the value for the parameter    #    $lastSubmit = Submit-JAMSEntry ProcessFile -UseVariable    #    #  Write some information to the log file    #    write-host "Entry " $lastSubmit.JAMSEntry " submitted to process $filename"



    # Save the Entry number

    #

    $entryList += $lastSubmit.JAMSEntry}##  We have submitted a job to process each file,#  now we will wait for all of them to complete.#Wait-JAMSEntry $entryList -verbose

Now we can create the trigger definition that will submit this job when one or more matching files arrives. The trigger will have a single file event that should use a wildcard in the file name so that it matches all possible incoming files, for example "C:\Incoming\*.dat". The trigger will also have a single action, submitting the job we just created.

The last step is to create the "ProcessFile" job that actually processes a file. The job must have a parameter named "filename" which will contain the name of the file that the job should process. The job also has to delete, move or rename the file so it doesn't fire the trigger again.

That's all there is to it! Now, you can sit back at watch JAMS work!

Why Triggers Using File Events Do Not Automatically Reset

JohnV — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:03:37 GMT

Note: This article is obsolete. As of JAMS V5.0, auto reset triggers are reset when the job(s) that the trigger submitted complete. So, as long as your triggered job actually processes the file that fired the trigger, you won't generate a loop. If your job doesn't process the file and JAMS detects a trigger loop, it will disable the trigger.

In the definition of a JAMS trigger the "Status" tab has an option to reset the trigger after it fires:

This option does not apply to triggers that have any "File" events because the Trigger would continuously fire multiple times as the file would still be present. The simplest way to reset a trigger that relies on "File" events is to run a PowerShell Job afterwards that resets the trigger using the "Reset-JAMSTrigger" cmdlet. This could be done by creating a new Job with PowerShell as it's execution method. The source for this job would be:

Reset-JAMSTrigger -Name YourTriggerName

After running this job your trigger would then be active.

SMS Text Alerts and Voice Calling Alerts

DanielS — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:32:15 GMT

JAMS has the ability to send SMS text alert and voice calling alerts through the online Paladin service. Not only does the Paladin service provide SMS and voice alerts, but it also handles alert escalation and monitors for a variety of other conditions.

You can access your Paladin service information at Paladin.mvpsi.com

Paladin uses OpenID log on information, so you don't have to maintain a separate account on the Paladin site.

When you log on to Paladin for the first time, Paladin will automatically create a new monitor called "JAMS Monitor" to facilitate JAMS alerts.

In order to receive alerts, you must first access the Configuration --> People menu of Paladin to enter your alert information.

Once you have added a notification method (e.g., your email address or phone number) to your account, you can then add yourself to the "JAMS Response Team".

You are now ready to use this Paladin Monitor in your JAMS installation. You can supply the Monitor name, by default "JAMS Monitor", to the Other field of the Notify Names tab of Setups or Job. By adding the /ask parameter, JAMS will also wait for a response from the Paladin notification. This allows you to restart a job, or stop escalation directly from your phone.

You can also generate new events directly within PowerShell using the Paladin PowerShell snapin.

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
Add-PSSnapIn MVPSI.Paladin -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
New-MonitorEvent -MonitorID "JAMS Monitor" -Severity 1 -Summary "Test from JAMS" -Details "This is your event information."

How to Cancel a Job from a PowerShell Precheck Job

phils — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:24:13 GMT

A Job can be cancelled via a PowerShell Precheck Job by specifying a specific JAMS Message Code in the Job's source. This can be useful in situations where the PreCheck Job's outcome will determine if the main Job needs to run.

The following message codes can be used in a Precheck Job:

Message Code	Description
CancelJobSuccess	Cancels the main Job with a Success severity.
CancelJobInfo	Cancels the main Job with an Informational severity.
CancelJobWarning	Cancels the main Job with a Warning severity.
CancelJobError	Cancels the main Job with an Error severity.

The following format should be used to exit with a JAMS message code where "CancelJobSuccess" can be substituted with any of the above Message Codes:

$Host.SetShouldExit(<<JAMS.Message.CancelJobSuccess>>)

The following image shows the source contained in a PreCheck Job that will cancel the main Job with a successful completion:

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.144

ChrisW — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 05:29:58 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to address an issue in JAMS v5.3.143 where after the JAMSScheduler service has sent 100 emails, formatting of the emails fails and the emails will only say "Macro depth exceeded 100!"

Moving the JAMS SQL Database

ChrisW — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:15:45 GMT

The process for moving the SQL database used by JAMS does not require reinstalling JAMS.

To relocate the SQL database used by JAMS:
1. Perform a normal SQL database backup and restore to target SQL server.
2. Edit the connection string property of the Common.config file found in C:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\Scheduler.
3. Restart the JAMS Scheduler service from the Windows control panel services applet.
4. Run "JAMS_DB_ERRORS.sql" on the new server. This script is found in the JAMS Scheduler directory.

The Common.config file contains the connection string used by JAMS services to connect to the SQL database. Below are two examples of connection string information, one for Windows Authentication models, one for SQL Authentication models.

For Windows Authentication:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<appSettings>
<add key="ConnectionString" value="Server=SQLA\INST1; Failover Partner=SQLB\INST1; Database=JAMS; Application Name=JAMS; Connect Timeout=600; Integrated Security=SSPI"/>
</appSettings>

For SQL Account Authentication:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<appSettings>
<add key="ConnectionString" value="Server=SQLA\INST1; Failover Partner=SQLB\INST1; Database=JAMS; Application Name=JAMS; Connect Timeout=600;Trusted_Connection=False;uid=YOURSQLACCOUNT;pwd=YOURPASSWORD" />
</appSettings>

Using the Task Scheduler Monitor

DanielS — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:33:20 GMT

External Tab

The External Tab can be used to view information about the Windows Task Scheduler Tasks located on the computer running the JAMS Client, as well as jobs located on other computers.

Displaying Tasks

To view the Tasks installed on the current machine, simply select the Task Scheduler Ribbon Bar Tab. Then, click the SchedulerTasks shortcut in the Shortcut bar to the left. By default, this will display all the Scheduler Tasks currently configured on the local machine. If no tasks are displayed, there may not be any Scheduler Tasks configured on the current machine.

To display the configured Tasks on a remote machine, right click on the shortcut bar, and choose the Add Shortcut option. Enter a new name for the shortcut.

Next, select the Query tab. In the Server Name field, enter the UNC path to the remote computer. For example \\ServerName.

Press OK to add the new shortcut to the shortcut bar. When the newly added shortcut is selected, the Tasks on the remote machine will be displayed. If no tasks are displayed, ensure that there are Task Scheduler Tasks present on the remote machine. Also, insure that your current user account has access to the Tasks on the remote machine.

Task Folders

If you are using Windows Vista or Server 2008, Task Scheduler supports the use of folders to organize Tasks. If the Folder field is left blank in the shortcut Query settings, then all the Tasks from all folders will be displayed. If you would like to limit the results, simply enter the path to the desired folder. Entering a single backslash "\" will display all of the Tasks in the root folder. In the below example, all Tasks within the \Microsoft\Windows\Defrag\ folder will be displayed.

Note: After changing the Query properties for a shortcut, you will need to select the Shortcut in the Shortcut Bar and press the Refresh button in order for the Query changes to take effect.

Scheduler Versions

There are two supported versions of Windows Scheduler. The version is use is determined by the Operating system on which the JAMS Client is installed. If the Client is running on Windows Vista or Server 2008, then it will be able to access Task information from other machines running Vista or Server 2008. It will also be able to access Tasks from machines running Windows XP or Server 2003.

However, if the Client is running on Windows XP or Server 2003, it will only be able to access Task information from other machines running XP or Server 2003. The libraries required to access Tasks on Vista and Server 2008 machines are not present, and therefore, no Task information can be retrieved from these servers.

Converting Tasks

It is very easy to convert a Task Scheduler Task to a JAMS Job. Simply select a Task from the Task list, right click, and choose the Convert option. You can also use the Convert to JAMS button in the Ribbon Bar.

Note: Task conversion requires a connection to a JAMS Scheduler. The free version of the JAMS Client does not support converting Tasks to JAMS Jobs. A licensed JAMS Scheduler is required.

A Conversion Wizard will now begin, which walks though all the steps required to convert a Task to a JAMS job. On each step of the wizard, fields will be pre-populated with information from the selected Task Scheduler Task. You can then change the retrieved information before the new JAMS Job is created.

Note: Not all options for a Task are supported by JAMS. If an option is not supported, then you may receive an error when advancing to the next conversion step. This is done so that you can appropriately change the property of the Job.

It is also possible to convert multiple Tasks at the same time. Just select several Tasks from the Task list and click the Convert to JAMS button. This will start the Wizard for converting multiple Tasks. The first few steps will prompt for information common to all of the Tasks selected for conversion. The Wizard will then attempt to convert all of the selected Tasks to JAMS Jobs.

If a Task property cannot be directly converted to a JAMS Job property, then a new Wizard screen will be displayed so that the property can be changed accordingly. A Task which cannot be converted automatically can be Canceled individually.

Other Actions

Tasks can also be started, stopped, and deleted from Task Scheduler. Simply select a Task from the Task list and click the appropriate button on the Ribbon Bar.

Securing Your JAMS Installation

DanielS — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 04:22:02 GMT

Security settings within JAMS are applied at the System definition level. Job and setups that belong to the System inherit security settings.

Here Windows Users or Groups can be referenced and granted permissions.

The permission details are documented here:

http://www.jamsscheduler.com/doc/JAMSClient/SystemsPropertiesSecurity.html

In order for a JAMS GUI Client to connect, the connecting user account must also have Execute permission within the Server ACL.

http://www.jamsscheduler.com/doc/JAMSClient/AccessControl.html

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.140

ChrisW — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 03:32:39 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to address an issue that could occur between the JAMS Executor and JAMS Agent when there is a network problem between the two.
An enhancement to clear the original start time, completion time, final status, and final severity when a Job is rerun.

JAMS SQL Database Tables

DanielS — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:30:47 GMT

The following is a description of the SQL database tables used by JAMS:

Agent - Stores agent definitions
AuditTrail - Stores the summary audit trail entries
CDP - Current Dependencies, stores information about unsatisfied dependencies for jobs in the current schedule (CurJob).
Cfg - Configuration settings
CurJob - Stores entries in the current schedule
CurJobInfo - A single record that holds the next entry number and next RON
CurParam - Parameter values for entries in CurJob
CurRep - Report values for entries in CurJob
DateD - Date detail, stores the detail dates for date types
DateM - Date types.
DateST - Specific types of date types.
EntryAuditTrail - Stores the information you see behind the "Audit Trail" tab of an entry in the Monitor
Failover - A single record that contains information about which scheduler is currently active
Hist - History table
JDP - Job Dependencies stores dependencies for both jobs and setups
Job - Job definitions
JobText - Job definitions, continued (some versions of SQL server can only retrieve 8,000 bytes from a table so we split Job into two tables).
MenuD - Menu detail, the details lines of a menu definition.
MenuM - Menu Master, menu definitions
MethodParam - Parameters for execution methods
Methods - Execution methods
NamedTimes - Named times
NextId - Stores the next available ID for many different objects.
NodeGD - Not used
NodeGM - Not used
ObjectStore - Stores stuff that an execution method asks the scheduler to store. This is used by the Workflow execution method.
Param - Job parameters
Queue - Batch queues
QueueNode - The nodes that a queue is started on
Rep - Report definitions for jobs
ReportDesign - Report definitions
ReportType - Report types
ResourceD - Resource detail, node specific quantities for resources that have different values for different nodes.
ResourceInUse - Resources values currently in use by executing jobs
ResourceM - Resource definitions
ResReq - Resource requirements (for System, job or setup)
Security - ACLs that are under the padlock pull down menu.
SetupD - Setup detail, the jobs in a setup
SetupM - Setup master, setup definitions
SetupMText - Text fields for SetupM (same as job, split into 2 tables to work around 8,000 character limit)
SetupP - Setup parameter values
SetupR - Setup report values
Sys - System definitions
SysText - Text fields for Sys (to work around 8,000 character limit)
TimeZone - Time zone definitions
TriggerActions - Trigger Actions
TriggerEvents - Trigger Events
Triggers - Trigger definitions
UserSecurity - User security definitions
Variables - Variable definitions
xref - Cross reference table, stores references to other objects.

All tables that end in "AT" are audit trail tables, they store previous versions of the objects the primary table.

For example, JobAT stores previous versions of records in Job.

Customizing JAMS Notification Emails

ChrisW — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:34:39 GMT

On the Notify Names tab of a Job, Setup, or System definition, you can specify notification email addresses that are alerted whenever a notification is triggered in JAMS. These notifications can be for Failed Jobs, Runaway Jobs, Jobs that have been pending for longer that a specified period of time, etc. These notification emails that are sent from JAMS can becustomized for your specific needs. To do so, there are 3 files that you can edit, all located in the ProgramFiles\MVPSI\JAMS\Scheduler directory:

1.Event.EMail.config - This file is only available in JAMS v5.3.x and above - edit this file in notepad or other text editor - In this file youcan edit the Subject line of the notification emails that are sent out. This is done in thesubject="{JAMS.JobType} {JAMS.JobName} Failed" line and the others like it forSuccess, Stalled, Runaway, etc. The corresponding email body is referenced bythe body="{%Failure%}" line and controlled by the 2 files outlinedbelow.

2. NotifyHtml.xml - edit this file innotepad or other text editor - This file allows you to edit the HTML version of the email body forthe notification emails. It contains the body contents for each of the specificcases of emails (Failed, Success, Runaway, etc).

3.NotifyText.xml - edit this file in notepad or other text editor - This file allows youto edit the plain text version of the email body for the notification emails.It contains the body contents for each of the specific cases of emails (Failed,Success, Runaway, etc).

The attachment is the JAMS Job or Setup log file and can eitherbe included (default) or excluded by removing <<JAMS.LogFileAttachment>> from the NotfiyHtml.xml andNotifyText.xml files for each case.

Once changes have been made to these files, you will want to restart your JAMS Scheduler service in order have the new notification email configuration read in to JAMS.

JAMS Scheduling Engine Cluster Installation

DanielS — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:36:34 GMT

The JAMS Scheduling Engine can be installed to an Active/Passive Windows Cluster and is installed as a generic Windows service.

The same steps for installing a JAMS Agent can be used for installing a JAMS Scheduling Engine:

http://www.jamssupport.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50042.aspx

Importing existing Windows Workflows

JohnV — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 05:03:45 GMT

You can import existing Windows Workflows into JAMS jobs of the Workflow execution method using the XAML format.

First create an empty JAMS Windows Workflow job. Then hold down the "Alt" key and click on the "Source" tab of the job definition. The "Source" tab will appear as the text editor instead of the workflow editor. You can then can paste the XAML from any existing workflows.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.137

ChrisW — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 03:18:02 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to address an issue where a rescheduled job would have its changes sent to the JAMS Scheduler, but they would not be saved in the database.
An enhancement to upgrade an Agent older than version 5.3 when deploying the JAMS Agent from the JAMS Client.
Enhancements to regression file transfer wildcard handling.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.134

ChrisW — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 05:39:53 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to allow the installation of the SAP add-on for the JAMS Client without needing to have the JAMS Scheduler installed.
An enhancement to resolve a situation that may occur where if a job never starts, the "ElapsedTime" property of History returned an incorrect value.
In the Job and Setup properties "Completion Times" tab, an enhancement has been made to display a blank date instead of 1/1/0001 if there are no values to display.
An enhancement to the display of Setup Events in a Trigger definition. Previously, the Trigger would be properly monitoring the correct Setup, but the Setup in the Trigger properties would be referred to as a Job.

An enhancement to resolve an issue when saving the completion severity of a Setup Event in a Trigger definition. Previously, if a "Failure" completion severity was selected for an event, that event's severity would be set to "Success" when you saved and re-opened the Trigger definition.

An enhancement to the Send-JFSItem JAMS PowerShell cmdlet. Previously, when doing a recursive Send-JFSItem, all of the files would be sent from the local directory tree but, they would all wind up in the same, top level directory.
An enhancement for workflows that include a delay that was long enough to have the process stopped. Previously, when the workflow was reactivated, it could fail shortly after it completed.
An enhancement to the Export-JAMSXML PowerShell cmdlet to improve pipeline support when passing variables into the cmdlet.

Release Notes for JAMS v.5.3.130

phils — Thu, 26 May 2011 07:23:43 GMT

This release includes:

Enhanced diagramming for Setup definitions and Jobs/Setups currently in Schedule - JAMS v5.3 now includes enhanced diagram capabilities in 2 areas:

Setup Definitions - Right-clicking on a Setup definition while in the Setup definitions view will give you access to view a Diagram of that Setup. The newly enhanced diagramming features allow you to easily view your Setup definition and each Job that will execute within that Setup. Information about the Setup itself and each Job within the Setup are quickly available by right-clicking and selecting the properties of any of the objects. In addition, the Design Mode can be chosen, allowing for changes to your Setup from within the diagram itself (adding Jobs, Dependencies, Resources, etc).

Scheduled Jobs Diagramming - From the Monitor View or Gantt View in the JAMS Client, right-clicking on any Job or Setup will allow you to Diagram that Job or Setup. When viewing the diagram, you will be able to see information about the Job or Setup such as its current status, entry number, current elapsed time if executing, etc. The Job or Setup and Setup Jobs will be highlighted in different colors to specify their current state.

Enhanced encryption and key management
New Export-JAMSXml and Import-JAMSXml PowerShell cmdlets - These two new PowerShell cmdlets are available with the JAMS PowerShell Snap-in. They allow for exporting and importing JAMS definitions using PowerShell rather than the JAMS.exe command line environment.

Support for Send-JFSCommand cmdlet (FTP quote) - This new PowerShell cmdlet, available with the JAMS PowerShell Snap-in, allows for commands to be sent through an FTP connection in JAMS, such as for FTP Quote.
Configurable and extendable event handling interface - Allows for configuration of how JAMS handles events such as E-mail notification.
Paladin event handling interface - allows for interaction between JAMS and Paladin monitoring to alert based on pre-configured scenarios when an events occurs in JAMS.
Event Log event handling interface
Enhanced JAMS Report execution method - This is a new execution method (JAMSReport) that provides a simple means for setting up Report Jobs.

Crystal Reports execution methods - Execution Methods for running Crystal Reports Jobs for Crystal Reports versions 12 and 13. The execution method supports specifying a JAMS user for Reports that require credentials.

PeopleSoft add-on - a JAMS add-on specifically for use with Jobs that run on PeopleSoft
IBM system i agent - a JAMS add-on specifically for use with Jobs that are running on the IBM System i architecture
Options to delete or read trigger event e-mail - When configuring an email trigger in JAMS, you can now choose whether you want to have that email marked as read or deleted once the trigger is fired and actions have taken place.

Resolve error code 255 when running SSHAgent Jobs

ChrisW — Fri, 20 May 2011 10:45:49 GMT

When executing a Job in JAMS that uses the SSHAgent execution method, you may have an error code returned with a value 255. This error occurs when there is no hashbang that specifies the interpreter that should be used to execute the rest of the script at the beginning of the SSH source in the JAMS Job definition. Adding the hashbang will resolve this error.

Examples:

#!/bin/sh

or

#!/bin/bash

Push Deploy Windows Agent with local user accounts

ChrisW — Fri, 20 May 2011 10:44:09 GMT

When deploying a remote JAMS Agent to a Windows server, the standard practice would be to use a domain account user that exists with Administrator privileges on both the JAMS Primary Engine (Scheduler) and the remote JAMS Agent machine. However, if you do not have an environment that uses domain accounts, there are two options for setting up the remote JAMS Agent software for a Windows server:

1. Manual Installation
The JAMS Agent for Windows can be manually installed. Simply go to the JAMS Primary Engine (Scheduler) machine and access the following path - Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\Scheduler\Agents\Windows

Once there, obtain either the SetupAgent.msi or SetupAgentx64.msi file and copy it to the remote Agent machine. Once on that machine, double-click to run the installer and follow the prompts. When the installation is complete, you will have a Windows service called JAMS Agent running.

2. Registry setting change on Agent Machine
In order to allow the push deployment of the Windows JAMS Agent to a remote server when not using domain user accounts, first make sure that the JAMS Primary Engine (Scheduler) and remote Agent server both have the same user account with the same password, both of them being Administrator level users. Once that is complete, perform the following registry edit on the remote agent machine:

CAUTION: Improperly modifying the registry can harm your system. It is always recommended to back up your registry prior to making any changes.

1. Browse to the following folder: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system\
2. Right-click a blank area in the right pane
3. Click New
4. Click DWORD Value
5. Name it LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy
6. Double-click the item you just created
7. Type 1 into the "Value Data" box
8. Click OK
9. Restart your computer

You will now be able to push deploy the JAMS Agent to the remote machine.

Configuring the SAP URL

JohnV — Fri, 20 May 2011 10:34:24 GMT

For an SAP job to execute properly it must have a base URL that is used to constuct a complete web service URL. In order to make it easy to change a job from server to server (i.e. Test to Production), JAMS looks in the following places to find the base URL:

A parameter in the job definition named JAMSSAPUrl
A parameter in the job's execution method named JAMSSAPUrl
A JAMS Variable named JAMSSAPUrl
A setting in the JAMSHost.exe.config (or Common.config) file named SAPUrl

The first value found will be used. The format of the base URL is:

http://YourServerName:port/sap/bc/srt/rfc/sap/{0}/{1}/{0}/{0}

You need to replace "YourServerName:port" with the name or IP address and port of your SAP server.

At run time, JAMS will replace "{0}" with the name of the web service that we want to call and "{1}" with the SAP Client.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.114

VanessaB — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:03:31 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to add optional verbose audit logging to the JAMSServer.log file.

The easiest way to use the new access logging is to run JAMSDebugger.exe as an administrator, pull down "Options" and pick "Settings", find the "JAMSServer", "Access" setting and change it to "Verbose". Click Ok and try to access something and the log info will show up in the debugger window and in the JAMSServer.log file.

***Note: Make sure you change that setting back or JAMSServer.log will grow very large.***

Using a JAMS Variable to Display a Common Date in Jobs

phils — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:23:58 GMT

A JAMS variable can be used to display a common date in multiple Jobs. The first step is to create a new JAMS variable with a "Text" data type as seen below:

In the example above, the variable's value utilizes the JAMS PowerShell snap-in to specify the natural language date specification "Last day of last month - 1". A date format could also be specified in the form:

Get-Date -Date (ConvertTo-Date "Last day of last month - 1") -Format "yyyy-MM-dd"
(More information on PowerShell date formats can be found here: PowerShell Date Formatting)

Once saved, the variable can be referenced in the source of any JAMS PowerShell Job:

Once submitted, the Job's log would include the outputted date:

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 12:00:00 AM

Editing a Setup definition fails with primary key violation

JohnV — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:11:30 GMT

Editing a Setup definition may fail with an exception like:

Setup update failed

Job update failed

Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint 'PK_SetupD'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'dbo.SetupD'.

The statement has been terminated.

If this happens every time you edit a particilar Setup, the Setup definition that is saved in the database is corrupt. To repair this corruption, follow these steps:

1. Right click on the problem Setup and pick "Copy To".
2. Enter a new name to copy the problem Setup to a new name.
3. Delete the problem Setup.
4. Rename the new copy of the Setup back to the original name.

Copying the Setup to a new name may not be a good solution if you have other objects that reference the Setup. In that case, you need to use SQL to correct the issue. To correct this issue with SQL, execute this command on the SQL Server machine:

SQLCMD -E -d JAMS -Q "delete from dbo.SetupD where job_id = 0"

CAUTION: This command deletes data from the JAMS Database. Make sure that you have a recent backup of the JAMS database before executing this command. Make sure that you type the command exactly as shown or you run the risk of deleting important data.

JAMS Server and Client Backward Compatibility

ChrisW — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:52:43 GMT

PLEASE NOTE: If you upgrade your v4.x JAMS Client and/or Server to the latest release (v4.9.165), the below configuration file edits are not necessary and JAMS will automatically be backward compatible.

A v5.x JAMS Client can connect to a v4.x JAMS Server and vice-versa. To do so, a small configuration file change is necessary:

Connect a v5.x JAMS Client to a v4.x JAMS Server:

JAMS v5.x is fully compatible with previous versions of JAMS. However you must make a small change to a configuration on v4.x JAMS servers before you can monitor jobs using the v5.x JAMS Client. The configuration file that needs to be updated is in the C:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\Scheduler directory and is named JAMSServer.exe.config. Open that file in any text editor and look for this line:

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="4.2.0.0-4.9999.9999.9999"

Change that line to be:

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="4.2.0.0-5.9999.9999.9999"

Save the file and then restart the JAMSServer service.

Connect a v4.x JAMS Client to a v5.x JAMS Server:

There is a small change that needs to be made on the v4.x configuration file to tell the JAMS v4.x client that it is compatible with v5.x servers. The configuration file that needs to be updated on the client machine is in the C:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\Client directory and is named JAMSWin.exe.config. Open that file in any text editor and look for this line:

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="4.2.0.0-4.9999.9999.9999"

change that line to be:

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="4.2.0.0-5.9999.9999.9999"

Save the file and then restart the JAMS Client.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.109

ChrisW — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:18:23 GMT

This release includes:

A correction when copying a Job or Setup so that the time zone setting in the Schedule Options is copied as well.
File watches now do a periodic manual check to work around errors in the Windows File System Watcher.
Added support to use the JAMSCredential returned by Get-JAMSCredential so we can support things that require that interface, like the WebClient. An example of using this new feature would be to download a file from a secure website:

# Get the credentials from the JAMS Password vault
#
Add-PSSnapIn MVPSI.JAMS -ea SilentlyContinue
$credentials = Get-JAMSCredential SupportSite

#
# Download a file from the secure site
#
$webClient = new-object System.Net.WebClient
$webClient.UseDefaultCredentials = $false
$webClient.Credentials = $credentials
$webClient.DownloadFile("http://www.JAMSSupport.com/Attachement5.aspx?AttachmentType=1", "C:\Temp\Cron2JAMS.zip")
$webClient.Dispose()

A correction for an unsynchronized access issue when checking a Job's dependencies.
A correction for cancelled Setups that were given a successful severity. If you canceled a Setup with a successful severity, a Job that was waiting for a step could start just before we cancel it. This was because we canceled the Job that it was waiting for with a successful severity which released the next Job just as we were about to cancel it.

Executing a .bat file within a PowerShell Job

ChrisW — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:13:19 GMT

While we would usually see a .bat file being called in a Job using the Command execution method, you can do the same in a PowerShell Job.

To start a command procedure from PowerShell, use the following code in your PowerShell source and modify for your file path and name:

C:\Path\file.bat
If you want to capture the output of the .bat, you can use this:

$out = C:\Path\file.bat
If you want to control the starting of a process, you can use the PowerShell Start-Process cmdlet:

start-process C:\Path\file.bat
If you want to control cmd.exe, you can use this:

start-process "cmd.exe" "/c C:\Path\file.bat"

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.108

JohnV — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:36:51 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to enforce JAMS Security. Due to a change in the operation of StrongNamePermission access checks in the .NET Framework, in some instances, an authorized JAMS user could exceed their authorized limits.
A correction for a race condition in file triggers. If a triggered job completes and the file that triggered the job is still present, the trigger may not reset every time based on timing.
An enhancement to allow specifying the TCP/IP port to use in a mail trigger event.
A correction for POP3 trigger events that would not see new mail unless the mail server closed the connection.
A correction for manually setting the completion status of setups. If you canceled a setup and selected a successful severity, the jobs in the setup were canceled with a successful severity but, the setup still had a fatal severity.
A correction for GUI edits of setup definitions. If you open a setup to make changes and you leave the setup open for a long time, when you close the setup, we could lose the changes.
A correction for the monitoring of re-run jobs. If you cancel a job and then release the job to run again, the Monitor view still displayed "Canceling…".

Also addressed in JAMS version 4.9.165:

An enhancement to enforce JAMS Security. Due to a change in the operation of StrongNamePermission access checks in the .NET Framework, in some instances, an authorized JAMS user could exceed their authorized limits.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.104

VanessaB — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:58:58 GMT

This release includes:

A correction for the handling of date specification for EVERY OTHER day-of-week.
A correction to avoid a potential deadlock when a precheck job has a precheck job.
An enhancement to increment the job log with the restart count when restarting a job.
A correction to treat null agent node name the same as an empty string when submitting setups.

Also addressed in JAMS version 4.9.164:

An update to the redirect version in JAMSWin.exe.config to specify 5.9999.9999.9999 as the upper limit. This allows 4.x JAMS GUI Clients to connect to 5.x JAMS servers.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.99

VanessaB — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:07:56 GMT

This release includes:

A correction for SSH jobs, to set JAMSSshTimeout before connecting to the SSH server.
An enhancement in lists, to select the line when right clicking.
Added support for the Save() method to JAMSMailMessage to save a mail message and an EML.
Added additional logging when create pipe fails due to poor network conditions.
An enhancement to the JDEdwards add-in to support V2.0 of the .NET Framework.
A correction to avoid a potential hang when a job cannot start on a very loaded system.
Added logging in JAMSAgentX when stats are not returned at the end of a job.
Improved SQL retry after a database deadlock condition occur.

Notify different users based on Job Severity

TonyC — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:10:20 GMT

JAMS allows for notifying different users based on how a job completed. Here is an example of this notification job:

param($JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY, $JAMS_NOTIFY_JOB_NAME)

#
# Get SMTP Server
#
$smtpServer = "<<smtpServer>>"

#
# Get the entry that we are notifying about
#
$entry = Get-JAMSEntry $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY

if($entry.FinalSeverity -eq "success") #Successful
{
$contact = "<<contactSuccess>>"
$msgSubject = "$JAMS_NOTIFY_JOB_NAME, Entry $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY Completed Successfully!"
$msgBody = "Job: $JAMS_NOTIFY_JOB_NAME`n
Entry: $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY`n
Final Status: Successful"
}
ElseIf($entry.FinalSeverity -eq "info") #Informational
{
$contact = "<<contactInfo>>"
$msgSubject = "$JAMS_NOTIFY_JOB_NAME, Entry $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY Completed with Informational!"
$msgBody = "Job: $JAMS_NOTIFY_JOB_NAME`n
Entry: $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY`n
Final Status: Informational"
}
ElseIf($entry.FinalSeverity -eq "warning") #Warning
{
$contact = "<<contactWarning>>"
$msgSubject = "$JAMS_NOTIFY_JOB_NAME, Entry $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY Completed with Warning!"
$msgBody = "Job: $JAMS_NOTIFY_JOB_NAME`n
Entry: $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY`n
Final Status: Warning"
}

#
# Send the message
#
if($contact)
{
Send-MailMessage -To $contact -Subject $msgSubject -Body $msgBody -From JAMS@mvpsi.com -SMTPServer $smtpServer
}

Using the SQL Server Agent Job Monitor

DanielS — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:17:34 GMT

External Tab

The External Tab can be used to view information about the SQL Server Agent Jobs located on the computer running the JAMS Client, as well as jobs located on other servers.

Displaying Jobs

To view the Jobs installed on the current machine, simply select the SQL Agent Ribbon Bar Tab. Then, click the SQL Agent Jobs shortcut in the Shortcut bar to the left. By default, this will display all the SQL Agent Jobs currently configured on the local machine. If no Jobs are displayed, there may not be any SQL Agent Jobs configured on the current machine.

To display the configured Jobs on a remote machine, right click on the shortcut bar, and choose the Add Shortcut option. Enter a new name for the shortcut.

Next, select the Query tab. In the Server Name field, enter the name of the SQL Server instance to connect to.

Press OK to add the new shortcut to the shortcut bar. When the newly added shortcut is selected, the Jobs on the remote machine will be displayed. If no tasks are displayed, ensure that there are SQL Agent Jobs present on the remote instance.

SQL Server Versions

There are two supported versions of SQL Server Agent, SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. The version is use is determined by the SQL Server version currently installed along with the JAMS Client. If the Client is running on a machine with SQL Server 2008 installed, then it will be able to access Job information from other instances running SQL Server 2008. It will also be able to access Jobs from instances running SQL Server 2005.

However, if the Client is running on a machine with SQL Server 2005 installed, then it will only be able to access Job information from other instances running SQL Server 2005. The libraries required to access Jobs on SQL Server 2005 instances are not present, and therefore, no Job information can be retrieved from these instances.

Converting Jobs

It is very easy to convert a SQL Server Agent Job to a JAMS Job. Simply select a Job from the Job list, right click, and choose the Convert option. You can also use the Convert to JAMS button in the Ribbon Bar.

Note: Agent Job conversion requires a connection to a JAMS Scheduler. The free version of the JAMS Client does not support converting SQL Agent Jobs to JAMS Jobs. A licensed JAMS Scheduler is required.

A Conversion Wizard will now begin, which walks though all the steps required to convert an Agent Job to a JAMS job. On each step of the wizard, fields will be pre-populated with information from the selected SQL Agent Job. You can then change the retrieved information before the new JAMS Job is created.

Since some SQL Agent Jobs will contain multiple Job Steps, these Agent Jobs will be converted to JAMS Setups, with two or more Jobs.

Note: Not all options for a SQL Agent Job are supported by JAMS. If an option is not supported, then you may receive an error when advancing to the next conversion step. This is done so that you can appropriately change the property of the Job.

It is also possible to convert multiple SQL Agent Jobs at the same time. Just select several Agent Jobs from the Jobs list and click the Convert to JAMS button. This will start the Wizard for converting multiple Jobs. The first few steps will prompt for information common to all of the Jobs selected for conversion. The Wizard will then attempt to convert all of the selected Jobs to JAMS Jobs.

If a SQL Agent Job property cannot be directly converted to a JAMS Job property, then a new Wizard screen will be displayed so that the property can be changed accordingly. A Job which cannot be converted automatically can be Canceled individually.

Other Actions

SQL Agent Jobs can also be started, stopped, and deleted from the SQL Agent instance. Simply select a Job from the Job list and click the appropriate button on the Ribbon Bar.

Resolving Mixed Mode Assembly error message in Powershell

ChrisW — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:05:35 GMT

While running a PowerShell Job in JAMS, you may find that you receive the following error when trying to run a Job that accesses a .NET 2.0 feature that is not able to run on .NET 4.0. The error message would be like the following:

System.IO.FileLoadException
Mixed mode assembly is built against version 'v2.0.50727' of the runtime and cannot be loaded in the 4.0 runtime without additional configuration information.

There are two options if you receive this error message:

1. If you are not using any features of the .NET 4.0 framework, there is a option that needs to be configured in the PowerShell Execution Method in JAMS in order to force your Job to run in .NET 2.0. In order to make this configuration change:

A. Go to your JAMS GUI Client Interface and click on the "Execution Method" shortcut in the shortcut bar on the left.
B. Find the "PowerShell" Execution Method and double-click it to open its properties window.
C. On the "Execution" tab of the properties window, add V2 to the Options text area. The screen shot below illustrates this:

D. Click OK to save the changes to your Execution Method.
E. Once these changes have been made, you should now be able to run your Job successfully.

2. If your are using any features of the .NET 4.0 Framework, setting the Options in the Execution Method to force those Jobs to run in .NET 2.0 will not work. In this case, you will need to add the useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy attribute to a .config file. For "Routine" Execution Methods such as PowerShell, we look in the "Options" field for "V2" and "x86". We then use:

V2 and x86 - JAMSHostV232.exe.config
V2 - JAMSHostV2.exe.config
x86 - JAMSHost32.exe.config
Neither - JAMSHost.exe.config

Once you have determined the correct .config file, add the following at the top of the configuration area of this file:

JAMS Web Services & The Java Command Line Client

DanielS — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:40:04 GMT

JAMSWebClient

About

JAMSWebClient is an application that enables JAMS users to (amongother things) submit jobs from the command line. The application mirrors some of the core features of the PowerShell Snap-In and can be run from other operating systems.

Prerequisites

Before you can use JAMSWebClient, you will need to do a few things first:

Deploy a JAMSWeb server.
Obtain a copy of JAMSWebClient.jar.

Environment Variables

For JAMSWebClient to work properly, you will need to specify the URL prefixof your JAMSWeb server. This can be done two ways: by storing it in theenvironment variable JAMS_SERVER, or by passing it as an argument toeach command (using -server).

Starting JAMSWebClient

Running the Application

JAMSWebClient is packaged as a Java Archive (.jar) file and is located in any of the Scheduler\Agents\ folders of the JAMS installation directory excluding the Windows agent folder. To run it from thecommand line:

java -jar JAMSWebClient

You will then see a jams> prompt. Type help to see alist of available commands:

jams>help
Usage: help <command>
        command : The command to give help on.
Possible Commands:
        help
        get
        set
        submit
        exit

Using JAMSWebClient

Setting Variables

The set command will set a web service variable to a specifiedvalue.

Typing help set will show the syntax of the setcommand:

jams>help set
Usage: set <name> <value> [ -server VALUE ]
        name : Name of the variable to set the value of.
        value : Value to set the variable to.
        server : URL prefix of JAMS service.

Getting Variables

The get command will get the value of a web service variable.

Typing help get will show the syntax of the getcommand:

Usage: get <name> [ -server VALUE ]
        name : Name of the variable to get the value of.
        server : URL prefix of JAMS service.

Submitting Jobs

The submit command will submit a job (or setup).

Typing help submit will show the syntax of the submitcommand:

jams>help submit
Usage: submit <name> [ -job ] [ -setup ] [ -hold ] [ -debug ] [ -useenv ] [ -saveentry ] [ -server VALUE ] [ -queue VALUE ] [ -agent VALUE ] [ -after VALUE ] [ -dependson VALUE ]
        name : The name of the Job or Setup to be submitted.
        job : Specifies that the name is a Job name.
        setup : Specifies that the name is a Job name.
        hold : Holds the Job until it is manually released.
        debug : Used for testing Jobs. Dependencies are not satisfied. The Job will run under the user who submitted it.
        useenv : Specifies that environment variables will be used as the default values of parameters.
        saveentry : Temporarily save the value of this job's JAMSEntry.
        server : URL prefix of JAMS service.
        queue : Specifies the batch queue that the job will be submitted to.
        agent : Used to specify the node name where this job's execution request should be sent. This node must be running the JAMS Agent or, if this is an rexec job, an rexec server.
        after : The Job will be held until this time.
        dependson : Wait for other jobs to complete before starting the job.

Examples

Setting Variables

Set the variables a, b, c, and d :

jams>set a apple
jams>set b bear
jams>set c code
jams>set d deer

Getting Variables

Retreive the values of variables a, b, c, andd :

jams>get a 
apple
jams>get b 
bear
jams>get c 
code
jams>get d 
deer

Submitting Jobs

Submit the job named TestJob, and a setup named TestSetup:

jams>submit TestJob -job
Job TestJob (Entry 1001) Scheduled.
jams>submit TestSetup -setup
Setup TestSetup (Entry 1002) Scheduled.

Note that -job and -setup are (usually) not necessary; JAMScan determine which one should be used (except in the case of a namingconflict).

Submitting Jobs with Dependencies

Submit the jobs named TestJobA, TestJobB,TestJobC, and TestJobD:

jams>submit TestJobA
Job TestJobA (Entry 2001) Scheduled.
jams>submit TestJobB
Job TestJobB (Entry 2002) Scheduled.
jams>submit TestJobC
Job TestJobC (Entry 2003) Scheduled.
jams>submit TestJobD
Job TestJobD (Entry 2004) Scheduled.

Submit TestJobE, but don't start it until TestJobA,TestJobB, TestJobC, and TestJobD have completed:

jams>submit TestJobE -dependson 2001,2002,2003,2004
Job TestJobE (Entry 2005) Scheduled.

Submitting Jobs with Dependencies, Method#2

Submit the jobs named TestJobA, TestJobB,TestJobC, and TestJobD, and remember their JAMS Entrynumbers:

jams>submit TestJobA -saveentry
Job TestJobA (Entry 3001) Scheduled.
jams>submit TestJobB -saveentry
Job TestJobB (Entry 3002) Scheduled.
jams>submit TestJobC -saveentry
Job TestJobC (Entry 3003) Scheduled.
jams>submit TestJobD -saveentry
Job TestJobD (Entry 3004) Scheduled.

Submit TestJobE, but don't start it until TestJobA,TestJobB, TestJobC, and TestJobD have completed:

jams>submit TestJobE -dependson $JAMSEntry
Job TestJobE (Entry 3005) Scheduled.

The $JAMSEntry keyword will expand to the list of saved entries.

Adding a custom exit code to a PowerShell Job

DanielS — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:12:21 GMT

In some cases, you may wish to force a PowerShell Job to exit at a specific point and add a custom exit code. In order to do this you can use the following variable in your PowerShell Source:

$Host.SetShouldExit(411)

In this example, "411" is the custom exit code that is being specified and can be set to your specific needs.

This custom exit code can then be added to the "Source Options" tab in the Job properties. In our example above, the exit code of "411" signifies an "Informational" exit code value for the Job. The screen shot below illustrates this:

Stress Testing the JAMS Primary Engine

DanielS — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:47:58 GMT

Here are some tips to follow when stress testing the JAMS installation for high volumes of jobs (over 100,000 per day ):

-          Do not run the JAMS GUI Monitor on the same machine as the JAMS Scheduler.
-          Do not run the jobs on the same machine as the JAMS Scheduler.
-          Run SQL on the same machine as the JAMS Scheduler.
-          Use a SQL Server Standard or Enterprise (NOT SQL Express).
-          Use queue job limits or resource requirements to prevent hardware overload.

***Note these recommedations do not apply to production installations, but only to stress testing environments.

Creating a notification Job that sends an event to SCOM

chrisw — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 09:59:43 GMT

The following is sample PowerShell source for a JAMS Notification job that sends an event to SCOM:

param($JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY, $JAMS_NOTIFY_REASON, $JAMS_NOTIFY_JOB_NAME)
write-host "$JAMS_NOTIFY_REASON for entry $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY, $JAMS_NOTIFY_JOB_NAME"
Add-PSSnapin MVPSI.JAMS -erroraction SilentlyContinue
#
# Get the JAMS CurrentJob object
#
$entry = Get-JAMSEntry $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY
$entry | fl | out-default
#
# Get the Job definition
#
$job = $entry.Job
#
# Format the notify text
#
$notifyText = "$JAMS_NOTIFY_REASON for entry $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY, $JAMS_NOTIFY_JOB_NAME"
#
# Send an event to SCOM
#
EVENTCREATE /S <<SCOMServer>> /ID 101 /T ERROR /L APPLICATION /SO JAMS /D $notifyText

Once this Job has been created, it can be selected as the Notification Job on the Notify Names tab of any Job or Setup in JAMS.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.95

VanessaB — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:23:03 GMT

This release includes:

A correction to prevent exceptions when using an older JAMS Client to modify a job in the schedule (restart, release etc). Previously, the JAMS Scheduler service will log an exception because the comment is null and then it will loop, retrying that transaction.
A correction to prevent JAMSAgentX failures that could cause the job to stay in the monitor even though the job had failed.
Improved the error reporting when JAMSAgentX fails to start.
Added support for OpenVMSMessageCode in execution methods.
Added support for setting the input and output encoding for "Routine" execution methods. In 5.1.117 we changed input and output encoding to UTF-8 to improve support for Unicode. This causes issues for the PowerShell pipeline and native executables. Now, the default input encoding is unchanged and the default output encoding is utf-8. These can be changed by setting the "DefaultInputEncoding" and "DefaultOutputEncoding" configuration settings or, by adding a parameter of JAMSEncoding, JAMSInputEncoding and/or JAMSOutputEncoding to the job or execution method.
A correction to prevent the JAMS Scheduler Service from failure fail if it encountered duplicate agent node definitions.
A correction to modifying Agent definitions that were added dynamically by the JAMS Scheduler service.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.88

DanielS — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 03:38:19 GMT

This release includes:

New Powershell cmdlets for connecting to IMAP and POP mail servers ; Connect-JIMAP and Connect-JPOP. These cmdlets support connecting to email servers using the latest industry security standards including SSL.
New Powershell cmdlets for handling mail messages; Get-JMailHeader, Get-JMailMessage, and Get-JMSFolder. These cmdlets extend JAMS powershell capability to email handling of any email type.
Added support for JAMS Parameter validation. This powerful feature help ensures the correct parameter is entered and allows for selecting a parameter from a predefined list.

Added support for job Audit Trail to track changes performed to job within the current schedule. This feature records changes made in releasing a job, canceling a job, or adjusting a job's parameters from the monitor view.
Added support for canceling a job with successful severity. This will prevent needless notification for manually canceled jobs.
Added support for submitting a setup definition from any step number. This feature allows for submitting job sequences to start running from any point in the sequence.
Added support for email trigger definitions. Email triggers allow for submitting a JAMS job when an email is received.
Added support for defining parameters at the Execution Method level. This allows jobs of the same type to easily share parameters.
Added status information to Agent properties to display license and availability information.
Integrated sample jobs library is now available on the external tab of the JAMS GUI to allow for easy importing of sample jobs. Dozens of VMware sample jobs, Windows Workflow sample jobs, and Powershell sample jobs are included.
Improved tolerance for database failure to better handle the SQL database becoming unavailable.

Creating a Sequential Workflow Outside of a Flowchart

DanielS — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:23:37 GMT

In the .NET Framework 4, developers typically choose between two different styles of workflow by choosing different outermost activities. Those activities are:

Sequence: Executes activities in sequence, one after another. The sequence can contain If activities, While activities, and other kinds of control flow. It’s not possible to go backwards, however—execution must always move forward.
Flowchart: Executes activities one after another, like a Sequence, but also allows control to return to an earlier step. This more flexible approach, new in the .NET Framework 4 release of WF, is closer both to how real processes work and to the way most of us think.

When creating a JAMS Workflow job a sequence of activities can be created using either the Flowchart or Sequence activity. The Sequence activity belongs to the "Control Flow" activity group and enables you to drop other activities onto it as seen in the example below:

A sequence can host any activity including Flowcharts and decision structures. The sequence activity is beneficial because it provides a more condensed view of a series of activities than a Flowchart.

How to Use The JAMS File Transfer PowerShell Cmdlets

phils — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:21:28 GMT

In addition to using the "File Transfer" execution method, file transfers can also be performed using the JAMS PowerShell Snap-In. The Snap-In supports transfers in the following forms: FTP, FTPS, and SFTP. Before a connection can be made, you must first define the credentials for the user account that will be connecting to the file server.

[Getting Credentials from a JAMS User]

$userCredentials = Get-JAMSCredential -UserName JAMSUserName -Server JAMSServerName

Once the credentials have been established a connection can then be made.

[Establishing a Connection]

The following example demonstrates the format for establishing an FTP connection:

Connect-JFTP -Credential $userCredentials -Name YourFileServerName

The other two transfer methods follow the same format except that "Connect-JFTP" would be replaced with "Connect-JFTPS" or "Connect-JSFTP". Besides that difference, the following examples are the same for any of the three transfer methods.

Once a connection is made, you can then retrieve or send files to the server.

[Sending & Retrieving Files]

The format for sending a file is as follows:

Send-JFSItem -Name C:\MyFile.txt -Destination C:\ServerDirectory\MyFile.txt

The format for retrieving a file is very similar:

Receive-JFSItem -Name C:\ServerDirectory\MyFile.txt -Destination C:\MyFile.txt

To view files in a directory the cmdlet "Get-JFSChildItem" can be used:

Get-JFSChildItem -Path C:\Logs\

Another option is to view details about a specific item using "Get-JFSItem":

Get-JFSItem -Path C:\Logs\Audit.log

The "Get-JFSChildItem" cmdlet is similar to the PowerShell "Get-ChildItem" cmdlet, they both return a collection of objects. The "Get-JFSChildItem" returns a collection of JAMSFileServerItems. Each JAMSFileServerItems describes an single file or directory that is on the file server. You can process these items using all the standard PowerShell commands, for example:

$fileList = Get-JFSChildItem *.txt
foreach($file in $fileList)
{
    if (($file.IsFile) -and ($file.Modified -gt $checkDate))
    {
        Receive-JFSItem $file
    }
}

[Directory Movement]

The "Get-JFSLocation" cmdlet enables you to determine the current path on the file server. An example of using this cmdlet might be to store the current directory in a PowerShell variable:

$CurrentDirectory = Get-JFSLocation

The "Set-JFSLocation" cmdlet allows you to change the directory on the file server and uses the format:

Set-JFSLocation -Location C:\NewDirectory

[Renaming & Removing Files]

Renaming and Removing files is also very simple. An example of renaming a file would be:

Rename-JFSItem -Name OriginalName.txt -NewName NewName.txt

While the format for removing a file is:

Remove-JFSItem -Path "C:\FTPNewName.txt" -Confirm:$false

In the example above, setting the "-Confirm" switch to false means that there should not be a verification prompt before deleting the file.

[Disconnecting]

Once the actions of the file transfer have completed the "Disconnect-JFS" cmdlet should be issued in order to disconnect from the file server.

Any of these cmdlets could be issued from a PowerShell console or from a Job within JAMS that uses PowerShell as it's execution method. Below is a simple example of how to use these cmdlets to perform a FTP transfer:

How to diagnose a job that does not complete

JohnV — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:03:28 GMT

Sometimes you may encounter a job that wants to run forever. This can be caused by a number of things. Often, it is due to a naive program that assumes that there is always someone there to read a dialog box and click "OK" or "Cancel". When these programs are run by a batch job scheduler (like JAMS), the dialog is usually not displayed where anyone can see it.

Here are some tips that can help you determine what the real issue is.

First, make sure that you have the best tool available for exporing Windows processes, Process Explorer. Process Explorer is a free Microsoft tool that you can download from:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

If you suspect a problem, the first step is to look at what processes are running. Here is a screen screenshot from Process Explorer that shows JAMS jobs running on a local JAMS Scheduler and running via the JAMS Agent:

The lines beneath the JAMSExecutor.exe line are jobs being executed on the local server by the local JAMS Scheduler. The lines beneath the JAMSAgent.exe line are jobs being executed on the local server by a JAMSScheduler on a different server.

Notice the yellow JAMSHostV2.exe line? That is a job that uses the "Routine" type of execution method. This includes PowerShell, Workflow and others. The two lines below that, cmd.exe and Sleep.exe are from a single job that uses the "Command" execution method which has a type of "Batch".

The "Type" of your job's execution method is a key piece of information that you need to know so that you know what what to look for. A type of "Routine" will show JAMSHost.exe, JAMSHostV2.exe, JAMSHost32 or JAMSHostV232.exe. A type of "Batch" will have something else, whatever is specified in the "Application" or "Command" in the execution method definition.

Finding the process for you rjob can tell you if your application is still executing, you can also see if it is getting any sort of CPU or IO activity. If there are many executing jobs, you can check the log file in the JAMS Monitor view to find the Process ID of your job's initial process.

Sometimes, you can see exactly why your job is hung. The following screen shot shows a job that failed but, the Visual Studio debugger has intercepted the failure and is displaying a dialog box asking if you want to debug the process. Usually, this dialog cannot be seen by anyone. The job is running UnhandledEx.exe (highlighted in yellow) and you can see the Visual Studio debugger below that.

Just-In-Time debugging is usually not something that you want of a server that is used for executing batch jobs. You can disable just-in-time debugging be deleting the following registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug\Debugger
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\DbgManagedDebugger

On a 64-bit operating system also delete the following registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug\Debugger
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\DbgManagedDebugger

If you are concerned about deleting these keys, you can also rename the key so that you can always revert back.

Sometimes you have one particular job that just won't complete. Every time you try to run it, it runs until you cancel it. These jobs are probably opening a dialog box and waiting for a response. To really see what's going on, log on to the console of the server where you are going to run the job using the Windows account that the job will be running under.

Temporarlily change the job's executiuon method to enable interactive mode, show show here:

Submit the job and wait for a dialog to appear.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.1.114

DanielS — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 03:15:05 GMT

This release includes:

A correction to Average elapsed times that could be incorrectly calculated when a job doesn't start. This can lead to failures of the JAMSScheduler with arithmetic overflow.
A correction if a job fails because it cannot open its log file, if you release the job to run again it fails with "Pipe is busy".
Added support for Active Directory user searches returning over 1000 matches.
Added support for JAMSSshEncryption, JAMSSshHostKey, JAMSSshKeyExchange and JAMSSshMacAlgorithm parameters to SSH jobs to allow overriding the default values for these options.
Added support for JD Edwards add-in (5.1 only).

Release Notes for JAMS v5.1.106

VanessaB — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:18:36 GMT

This release includes:

a correction for Trigger event severity was not being saved
a correction if the SQL Server database used by JAMS is in a different time zone, resetting a trigger would use the wrong time.
a correction to avoid a long running job on an older JAMS Agent from fail with "Activity Timeout"
a correction if the connection to an agent job failed, the JAMSExecutor could fail with "Cannot access a disposed object"
a correction for Audit trail revisions for databases not named "JAMS"

Issues also addressed in 5.1.105:

JAMSHistoryPurge was sorting incorrectly so it wasn't purging the oldest data.
JAMS_TRYAGAIN completion status is now handled as a successful severity
Importing jobs, setups and systems will now properly inherit ACLs although, exports still do not export the ACL.
If you push the JAMS Agent to a machine that does not have V4.0 of the .NET Framework installed, file watches did not work.
Updates for the JDE add-in (which will be a separate install).

Release Notes for JAMS v5.1.101

VanessaB — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:06:23 GMT

This release includes:

Added support for PowerShell_ISE and PowerGUI script editing with the JAMS Source tab for PowerShell job definitions.

How JAMS Handles Exit Codes

JohnV — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:44:19 GMT

JAMS translates a Job's exit code into text from a system error code value. For example, an exit code of 0 corresponds with the message "The operation completed successfully".

The list of Windows system exit codes can be found here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms681381.aspx

The translated exit code is displayed by JAMS in the Monitor view as well as in a Job's detail window:

Release Notes for JAMS v5.1.96

VanessaB — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:09:34 GMT

This release includes:

Improved performance when running many (hundreds) of simultaneous SshAgent jobs.
Added -Entry parameter to the Set-JAMSStatus cmdlet
If an SshAgent job set JAMSTraceLevel to verbose, it would be set to verbose for all jobs.
We now force PowerShell execution methods to run under V2.0 of the .NET Framework. If you want to run PowerShell under V4.0 of the .NET Framework, you can remove the "V2" from the "Options" field of the execution method.
You can now push the JAMS Agent to a machine that only has V2.0 of the .NET Framework installed.
A correction for Setups If a Setup was a simple setup (containing only one job definition) and defined a precheck on the job, the precheck was not being executed.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.1.89

VanessaB — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 04:16:23 GMT

This release includes:

A correction for installation issues on SQL2000.
A correction to avoid a condition if multiple jobs start on the same JAMS Agent simultaneously. A job could inherit a handle from another job and then neither job would complete until they were both complete.
A correction for an issue that could make PowerShell jobs hang.
A correction to avoid a resource leak in the JAMSExecutor when running Ssh Agent jobs.

BackupExec and NetBackup Jobs

DanielS — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 07:12:53 GMT

Both BackupExec and NetBackup have command line interfaces so we can create JAMS jobs that execute backup operations on Windows and Unix platforms. BackupExec and NetBackup can also execute a command before and/or after a backup operation which could be a JAMS command to set a variable, or submit a JAMS job. In many cases, customers are better off using the backup engine to schedule backups because their schedule is more a definition of what to backup than a schedule of when to run a job. Backup engines are moving towards continuous protection where a file is backed up when it is changed rather than every night at 10pm.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.1.72

VanessaB — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 06:07:25 GMT

This release includes:

Added support for four new PowerShell cmdlets:

Send-JFSCommand
Get-JAMSParameter
Set-JAMSParameter
Set-JAMSStatus

Added support for Time Zones adjustment when scheduling jobs and setups.
Added support for a beginning and ending date for automatic scheduling.
Added support for "Every Other|nnn day|workday|weekday" syntax in Natural Language Dates.
Added a new History View with advanced searching, sorting and selecting.
Added support for displaying Revision History of Jobs, Setups, Systems and Triggers with Compare and RevertTo options.
Added support for reverting to a previous version of a Job, Setup, System or Trigger.
Improved performance of JAMSAgentX (SSH Agent) jobs.
A correction to address an issue where Active Directory queries only returned the first 1000 matches.
Added support for F5 to every refresh list with the JAMS GUI Client.

Deleting\Canceling Jobs from the Schedule

DanielS — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:12:34 GMT

When Jobs are deleted from the Monitor view, these Job occurrences are marked for deletion by JAMS. However, it may appear that these Jobs are not deleted immediately. That is because the JAMS Scheduler service periodically checks for these deleted Jobs and removes them from the display. Doing this improves performance and reduces the possibility of lock contention.

How to Create a Custom Parsed Execution Method

DanielS — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 04:59:56 GMT

Creating a custom execution method can be very helpful in customizing how JAMS runs jobs. It is possible to utilize a technology which JAMS does not interface with out of the box, or modify an existing execution method to add, or customize functionality. In this guide, we will copy an existing execution method and modify how it runs jobs.

You can find a list of the JAMS execution methods by selecting the Management tab, and then clicking on the Execution Methods icon.

For this example, we will be copying the Parsed Windows Command procedure to a new execution method and adding some custom functionality.

First, we need to create a new execution method in JAMS. We can add a new execution method by clicking on the Add icon in the above dialog. This will start the JAMS Execution Method Definition Wizard. In the wizard, we must specify a unique name. Also, we can enter a description of the new method.

Next, we must specify an Execution Type. We will be selecting Batch.

The new execution method will now be added to the execution method list. We can now edit the new definition further. Open the definition and select the Source tab. In Job Module field, enter the name of the template library which will be used. We will be creating a new one later in this example called CustomParsed. Also, enter cmd as the Default File Extension.

Now, select the Execution tab. In the Command field, enter “cmd.exe /c "{0}"”.

There are other properties which may be needed for other execution methods. A full list of the available execution method properties, and descriptions of the properties can be found here: http://www.mvpsi.com/doc/JAMSClient/MethodsProperties.html

Now that we have created a new entry in JAMS for our custom execution method, we need to create a new Job Module in the BaseMacros.xml file. This file provides JAMS with a template for parsing a Job’s command procedure. To add a new entry to the file, open the BaseMacros.xml file which is located in C:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\Scheduler\BaseMacros.xml

Since we are adding functionality to an existing execution method, we can copy the existing macro for Parsed jobs. This is the first Macro entry in the file.

<Macro name="Parsed">
    <Code>
         <![CDATA[REM JAMS Parsed Macro <%Symbol(JAMS.Parameters)%>
         <<JAMS.Source>>
         exit %errorlevel% ]]>
    </Code>
</Macro>

Copy and paste this code back into the BaseMacros.xml file, inside of the <ArrayOfMacro> tags. We will now change the macro to provide our custom functionality. First, we need to change the name of the macro to match the execution method’s Job Module property. In this example, it is “CustomParsed”. Next, we can begin changing the macro. When a job executes, the code contained within the “<Code><![CDATA[“ tags will be evaluated by JAMS, and then sent to where the execution method properties specify.

JAMS can retrieve data from the job currently executing. This data is then used to execute the job. Data is contained within the <<>> tags. JAMS can also evaluate and insert other macros, which are contained in the <%%> tags.

In this example code, the JAMS.Parameters collection, and the JAMS.Source property are being referenced. The objects you can retrieve data from are as follows:

System	The Job or Setup’s JAMS System
Setup	Only accessible when running a Setup
Job	Only accessible when running a Job
SetupJob	Only accessible when running a Setup
Current	The CurJob object
Node	A NodeInfo object
Source	The Source property provided by the Job
NotifyEMail	The final list of email addresses to be notified. This is a combination of e-mail addresses from the DefaultNotifyEmail config setting, System, Setup, and Job notify lists.

You can reference any of the above objects starting by starting with “JAMS.”. So, if we want to retrieve a description of the System this job is running under, we would use <<JAMS.System.Description>> in our macro. It is possible to access any public property from any of the above objects. If one of the above objects are not specified, the Current object is inserted. So, in the macro source, <<JAMS.JobName >> and <<JAMS.Current. JobName >> would evaluate to the same value. The properties of the above objects can be found in our documentation, here: http://www.mvpsi.com/doc/ProgrammerReference/Default.html

Parameters and variable values can also be accessed. If you do not start out the reference with “JAMS.”, the value of a Parameter or JAMS variable will be used instead, if one is found. So, if your job specifies a parameter named “FileLocation”, you can access the value from the macro by using “<<FileLocation>>”.

It is also possible to add formatting to a value. For example, we could use <<JAMS.Current.StartTime(”d”)>> to format the StartTime of the Current job in a Short Date pattern. Any format supported by the .NET String.Format method can be used. A listing of these formats can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fbxft59x.aspx

Macro tags will insert another macro from within the BaseMacros.xml file. They can be used with any object which supports the IEnumerable interface. In this example, the Symbol macro is used.

<%Symbol(JAMS.Parameters)%>

It will be inserted once for each of the JAMS.Parameters which are retrieved from the job at execution time. The Symbol macro is as follows:

Once inside of a sub macro, you can access the properties of the current object within the enumeration by specifying the property name within angle brackets. So, for each parameter in the JAMS.Current.Parameters collection, the Symbol macro is inserted. Then, the values of the NAME and VALUE properties are retrieved and inserted into the SET line.

When the default Parsed macro is executed, it looks similar to this:

C:\Windows\system32>REM JAMS Parsed Macro

C:\Windows\system32>SET Param1=Value1

C:\Windows\system32>SET Param2=Value1

C:\Windows\system32>REM Source of Job inserted here

C:\Windows\system32>exit 0

Now that we have an understanding of how the parsing works, we can modify the default to add some custom functionality. We will be adding a couple of lines to the beginning of the job execution to better log what job is being executed. Make the highlighted changes to the CustomParsed macro we pasted into the BaseMacros.xml file.

<Macro name="CustomParsed">
    <Code>
         <![CDATA[REM JAMS Custom Parsed Macro
         REM Job Name: <<JAMS.Current.JobName>>
         REM Job Description: <<JAMS.Job.Description>>
         REM Running under System: <<JAMS.System.SystemName>>
         <%Symbol(JAMS.Parameters)%>
         <<JAMS.Source>>
         exit %errorlevel% ]]>
    </Code>
</Macro>

Now, save the BaseMacros.xml file. In order for the new macro to be used, the JAMSScheduler service must be restarted. This must be done every time a change is made to the BaseMacros.xml file, or the changes will not take effect when job runs. This can be done in Windows PowerShell using the command Restart-Service JAMSScheduler.

Once the service has restarted, we can create a new job to test the execution method we just made, or change the execution method of an existing job. This property can be found in the Source Options tab of a job definition.

Note: If you do not see the CustomParsed Execution method in the dialog, you may need to hit the Refresh button in order for the newly created method to appear.

Now, submit the job and view the resulting log file when the job completes. You can now see that the additional information we inserted in the BaseMacros.xml file has been parsed, and the additional logging comments have been displayed successfully.

Automating Outlook Tasks

DanielS — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 04:58:00 GMT

JAMS has the ability to automate Outlook tasks such as saving attachments or exporting email information.

While Outlook profile settings and Exchange security settings can complicate these tasks, Outlook provides COM objects for automation within Powershell.

The following examples parse the Test folder within the Outlook Inbox.

Example #1. Exporting the Sender email addresses from an Outlook folder:

$olFolderInbox = 6
$ol = new-object -comobject "Outlook.Application"
$mapi = $ol.getnamespace("mapi")
$inbox = $mapi.GetDefaultFolder($olFolderInbox)
$msgs = $inbox.Folders.Item("Test")
$msgs.items | Select-Object SenderName, SenderEmailAddress -unique | export-Csv c:\emails.csv -noTypeInformation

Example #2. Saving the email attachments from an Outlook folder:

$olFolderInbox = 6
$ol = new-object -comobject "Outlook.Application"
$mapi = $ol.getnamespace("mapi")
$inbox = $mapi.GetDefaultFolder($olFolderInbox)
$msgs = $inbox.Folders.Item("Test")

foreach ($group in $msgs.items |% {$_.attachments} | group filename)

{
    trap {
        Write-Host There was a problem saving $fName
        continue
        }
$fName = "C:\TEMP\$($group.Name)"
$group.Group[0].saveasfile($fName)
    if ($?) {Write-Host $fName was saved succesfuly.}
}

JAMS for OpenVMS V4.2Q

DanielS — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:07:33 GMT

The following issues are addressed in JAMS for OpenVMS Version 4.2Q

If a job running via the JAMS Agent for OpenVMS executing a SPAWN command, the job would never complete.

*Note that only the JAMS Agent changed in 4.2Q

Release Notes for JAMS v4.9.154

VanessaB — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:00:16 GMT

This release includes:

A correction to Canceling a Parameter addition to avoid a looping condition.
Added support for PowerShell jobs including Unicode characters in the script and as parameters.
Updated RebEx components to the latest version.
A correction to the JAMS database schema names to support SQL 2000.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.0.191

VanessaB — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:58:53 GMT

This release includes:

A correction to Canceling a Parameter addition to avoid a looping condition.
Added support for PowerShell jobs including Unicode characters in the script and as parameters.
Updated RebEx components to the latest version.
A correction to the JAMS database schema names to support SQL 2000.
Added support for output properties to the Submit workflow activity to pass final severity, status and status code.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.0.180

DanielS — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:13:13 GMT

JAMS V5.0 Release Notes

.NET Framework V4.0

JAMS V5.0 requires V4.0 of the .NET Framework. If it is not already installed, the JAMS setup program will download and install V4.0 of the .NET Framework.

The JAMS Agent works with V2.0 (or higher) of the .NET Framework.

The JAMS V4.9 Admin Client can connect to and administer a JAMS V5.0 server so you can continue to use the JAMS 4.9 Admin Client on machines that cannot be upgraded to V4.0 of the .NET Framework.

Report Definitions

There have been significant improvements to the JAMS Report Designer which requires that report definitions be updated. All of the JAMS predefined reports will be replaced during the upgrade. If you have customized any of the predefined reports without saving them to a new name, you should save your custom reports under a new name or to a file before upgrading to JAMS V5.0.

As a precaution, you should save any custom reports to a file before upgrading to JAMS V5.0. This will protect you in case you encounter an issue opening the report in the V5.0 designer.

After upgrading to V5.0, you must update any custom reports by opening them in the designer and clicking the "Save" button.

Backwards Compatibility

JAMS V5.0 is fully compatible with previous versions of JAMS. However you must make a small change to a configuration on V4.x JAMS servers before you can monitor jobs using the V5.0 JAMS Client. The configuration file that needs to be updated is in the C:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\Scheduler directory and is named JAMSServer.exe.config. Open that file in any text editor, look for this line:

<bindingRedirect oldVersion="4.2.0.0-4.9999.9999.9999"

change the 4.9999.9999.9999 to 5.9999.9999.9999. Save the file then restart the JAMSServer service.

SQL Performance Metrics to Check

VanessaB — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:00:52 GMT

MVP recommends investigating the following performance metrics to examine SQL performance.

SQLServer : MemoryManager : Total Server Memory
SQLServer : Memory Manager : Target Server Memory

These two counters are the best way to know if SQL Server has enough RAM tooperate properly.

Total Server Memory indicates the current RAM currently in use by the SQLServer Service. This value includes the total number of buffers committed toSQL Server and the OS buffers of the type OS in use.

Target Server Memory indicates how much RAM the SQL Server Service wouldideally like to have.

Generally, if the Total Server Memory counter is less than the Target ServerMemory, then SQL Server has enough memory to run efficiently.

If, over time, the Total Server Memory value is equal to or higher than theTarget Server Memory, the SQL Server Service may be under serious memorypressure and an increase in RAM is needed.

By the way, don't just add physical RAM to the server.(You didn't think it wasgoing to be that easy, did you?)

You need to have the Server Administrator look at the properties of the SQLServer (using SQL Server Enterprise Manager in SQL Server 2000 or SQLManagement Studio in SQL Server 2005).

Check the service is configured to use the newly installed RAM once it isadded. If SQL Server is configured to use a fixed amount of memory, addingphysical RAM is useless - you need to the limit once the memory has beeninstalled.

SQLServer : Access Methods : Page Splits/Sec

Page splitting cause excessive I/O on your SQL Server machine. Page splittinggenerally starts when a page of SQL Server data becomes full and is then splitbetween the current and a newly allocated page.

Occasional page splitting is a normal condition in SQL Server, but when thisparticular counter is high, excessive disk I/O is generally the result - withsubsequent slow performance to the clients of the SQL Server.

If this counter exceeds 100 over 25% of the time you have a problem. Thesolution is to increase the FILL FACTOR value in SQL Server Properties -Database Settings.

SQLServer : SQL Statistics : Batch Requests/Sec
SQLServer : Databases: Transactions/Sec

Getting a feel for how busy SQL Server actually is can be complicated. A goodstarting point is Batch Requests/Sec.

A DBA may state that Transactions/Sec is a more accurate measurement, but thisis incorrect because Transactions/Sec only measures activity that is inside anactual transaction and not all activity. This can produce seriously skewedresults.

Batch Request/Sec measures all SQL Server activity.

In general, Batch Request/Sec over 1,500 shows a very busy SQL Serverenvironment.

But this is in general -- if the server is running on a modern SMP machinesitting on a gigabit network segment this figure can be as high as 3,000; atypical 100 megabit network card can handle about 4,000 batch requests persecond.

If the machine is a uni-processor, and over 1,500, tell your boss you need abigger machine...

SQLServer : Buffer Manager : Buffer Cache Hit Ratio

This counter is an indication of how often SQL Server is able to get data fromthe RAM buffer instead of the hard disk. A higher ratio is an indication ofbetter performance.

A good target for the Cache Hit Ratio is anything above 85 percent. Anythingless than 85% indicates the server needs more RAM.

Remember the counter is an accumulation from the time the SQL Server Service isstarted. The SQL Server Service should be restarted and watched for severalhours before an accurate picture of the Buffer Cache Hit Ratio can be gathered.

Memory : Pages Per Second

This value should always be less than 100 on a production SQL Server.

This particular counter is one of the most overlooked values in the entireWindows operating system. If the value for Pages Per Second is above 100 on aregular basis, the operating system itself may not have enough RAM.

Check the properties of the SQL Server and ensure SQL Server is not using 100percent of the RAM on the server. Ensure enough RAM is allocated to Windows forother tasks.

A quick and dirty way of measuring this is to simply use Task Manager to viewthe value for Available Physical Memory on the Performance tab.

Do not confuse this counter with Page Faults Per Second

A Page Fault means the required page is not currently paged in, but it may bein the discarded page list in memory. If the page is in the discarded pagebuffer, that is, it's in another buffer still in RAM, a physical page-in fromdisk is not needed; the Pages Per Second is not incremented.

Is Defragmentation Necessary?

If ODBC timeouts are an issue, fragmentation may be the cause.

You can buy a third-party defragger.

Because SQL Server data files and transaction logs tend to be very large,extensive fragmentation may be a real issue. I/O access can be slowedsignificantly.

Fragmentation is particularly evident when range scans and table scans takeplace, as these operations read a large amount of data. If the drive head hasto move all over the drive platter to locate the required data, time is wastedand timeouts can occur.

Watching for Files on OpenVMS

JohnV — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:35:59 GMT

Watching for files with JAMS for OpenVMS is a little different than watching for files with JAMS for Windows. The Windows NTFS file system has hooks that will send us events when a file is created or deleted and we don't have those hooks in the OpenVMS ODS2 file system.

There are two basic scenarios where we need to watch for a file:

When we know the aproximate time that a file will arrive and we have a job scheduled to process the file.
When we don't know when a file will arrive and we want to submit a job whenever the file does arrive.

The first scenario is easily handled with a precheck job. You can create a generic "file" precheck which job which obtains the file specification from the job that it is checking for. Here is the DCL source:

$!$!  FILE_PRECHECK - This is a generic job which is used as a precheck$!                  to look for a file.$!$!                  We get the filename that we're looking for from$!                  the job that we're checking for.  We look at the P1$!                  parameter from that job which should be a filename.$!$!  Get the filename from P1 of the job we're checking for$!$ fileName = f$getqui("DISPLAY_ENTRY", "PARAMETER_1", <<JAMS_PRECHECK_ENTRY>>)$!$Check_Loop:$    if (f$search(fileName) .nes. "")$    then$        exit 1$    endif$    wait 00:00:30$    goto Check_Loop$!

To use this, you simply set it as the precheck job in the primary job definition (the job that needs to wait for the file). You also have to add a P1 parameter to that job and set the value of the parameter to the file specification to look for. After that, when the primary job is scheduled to start, JAMS will submit the precheck job which looks for the file. When it seens the file it completes succesfully which is the signal to JAMS that the primary job can be released.

The second scenario is accomplished using JAMS Triggers and Variable events. First, you need a job that will watch for the file. You can tell JAMS to resubmit the job every few minutes or you could put a loop in the job. Here is an example that would be resubmitted every few minutes:

$!$! FILE_WATCHER - A job that watches for a file and sets a JAMS$!                Variable when the file arrives$!$ JAMS :== $MCR JAMS_EXE:JAMS_MASTER.EXE$!$ if (f$search("DISK:[INCOMING]*.DAT") .nes. "")$ then$     JAMS SET VARIABLE FILES_ARE_READY TRUE$ endif

When this job sees a matching file it just sets a JAMS Variable named FILES_ARE_READY to true. Now, you can create Trigger Events or dependencies that are based on that variable. Here is a JAMS Trigger definition:

DEFINE TRIGGER PROCESS_FILES        DESCRIPTION "Process the files that FILE_WATCHER detects"        EVENT                VARIABLE FILES_ARE_READY TRUE        END_EVENT        ACTION                SUBMIT JOB PROCESS_FILE        END_ACTIONEND_TRIGGER

One detail of note, the trigger definition is not auto reset to prevent the PROCESS_FILE job from being submitted multiple times. After the PROCESS_FILE job has processed the files, it should do a JAMS RESET TRIGGER PROCESS_FILES to reset the trigger for the next file arrival.

Release Notes for JAMS v4.9.148

VanessaB — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:56:26 GMT

This release includes:

A correction if EnableSimpleSetups Configuration item was missing, automatic submits didn't work if a Setup definition was scheduled.
Added support for LockShortcutbar, a User.Config file setting to restrict changes to the Shortcut Bar
Added support allowing the limited list of Users even with no Inquire access.
A correction to zero agent license counts when restarting after a SQL failure.
An enhancement to tolerate database timeouts when deleting jobs. If there is a SQLException while deleting jobs, we trap it, log a message and retry after a 1 minute delay. Previously, the JAMS Scheduler service would fail and restart.

JAMS Command Line Environment

DanielS — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:17:40 GMT

In addition to the Client GUI, the Powershell SnapIn, and the .NET Controls, JAMS offers a command line interpreter for managing your scheduling environment.

When you install the JAMS Client, it installs JAMS.EXE, which is a command line tool. When started from the command line, you will get a JAMS> prompt. Type HELP, and you can discover all of the commands it supports. Type HELP COMMAND to get help on a particular command (For Example: HELP EXPORT JOB).

You first action establishes the connection to the JAMS ServerName.

SET SERVER JAMSServerName

Using SNMP Notifications With JAMS

phils — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:58:40 GMT

SNMP notifications can be used with JAMS to create alerts for the status of jobs and setups. An SNMP notification can be sent in the event that a job or setup completed successfully, failed, stalled, was short, or became runaway.

In order to use SNMP notifications with JAMS it is necessary to have an SNMP trap sender. An SNMP trap sender enables a JAMS notification job to send a notification across a network to the SNMP receiver.

A trap generator can be downloaded here:
http://www.ncomtech.com/trapgen.html

After installing this utility it is also necessary to download the JAMS MIB file. The MIB file allows a SNMP Trap receiver to understand the data context of the information being sent to it by the trap sender.

The JAMS MIB file can be downloaded here:
-You must be signed in to follow this link
http://www.jamssupport.com/Download50116.aspx

The next step is to open JAMS and create a new SNMP notification job. In this example we will create a new job definition and use PowerShell as the execution method. The following images will illustrate how to create the notification job:

You may have noticed that the job has three parameters defined at the top of the script. These parameters do not need to be defined in the parameter tab of the job definition, however they do need to be specified in the source tab as shown above. It is also important to notice that on lines 31-32 that I am navigating to the directory where I installed the trap sender. This file path will depend on the location where you installed the trap sender(TrapGen).

The first portion of the source is simply getting information about the job or setup that we want to create a notification for. The next image will show how to define the notifications that you want to send.

The source in the image above shows how to create a notification for a job that has failed, runaway, or was completed successfully. To get a better idea of what is going on in these notifications I will use the Failed notification as an example. Line 68 tells the trap generator where to send the notification on the network. This IP address should correspond to where you will have your SNMP trap receiver. Lines 68-77 reference objects from the JAMS MIB file and do not require any changes to get notifications working. Any of the lines that begin with "-v" can be re-ordered or removed to suit your notification requirements.

The last image shows the remaining source of the notification job and demonstrates how to create a few more notifications :

This job can now be specified as the notification job of any JAMS job or setup under the "Notify Names" tab of a job definition.

In order to receive notifications, you must specify the location of the JAMS MIB file in your SNMP Trap receiver. Your receiver should then be able to receive notifcations from JAMS.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.0.180

VanessaB — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:32:12 GMT

This release includes:

A correction for Reports generation.
A correction for idle Windows Workflows that were falsely declared Runaway.

Release Notes for JAMS v4.9.143

VanessaB — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:51:12 GMT

This release includes:

Added support for converting and viewing SAP multistep and standard jobs on the "External" tab.
A correction to the Monitor view Submit ribbon bar button; if you select a job within a setup and then click "Submit", the setup was submitted instead of the job.

Running SQL DTS Packages in JAMS

phils — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:24:03 GMT

JAMS has the ability to run SQL DTS packages through the SSIS execution method. This execution method uses dtexec.exe.

More information on this utility can be found here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162810.aspx?PHPSESSID=o1fb21liejulfgrptbmi9dec92

JAMS includes a sample job, DBMaintPlan, as an example of a DTS package in JAMS.

To execute an SSIS package saved to SQL Server using Windows Authentication, use the following code:

/SQL pkgOne /ser productionServer

To execute an SSIS package saved to the File System folder in the SSIS Package Store, use the following code:

/dts "\File System\MyPackage"

To validate a package that uses Windows Authentication and is saved in SQL Server without executing the package, use the following code:

/sql pkgOne /ser productionServer /va

To execute an SSIS package that is saved in the file system, use the following code:

/f "c:\pkgOne.dtsx"

To execute an SSIS package that is saved in the file system, and specify logging options, use the following code:

/f "c:\pkgOne.dtsx" /l "DTS.LogProviderTextFile;c:\log.txt"

Release Notes for JAMS v4.9.139

DanielS — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:40:20 GMT

This release includes:

A correction for the Remove-Item Powershell cmdlet for System definitions.
An enhancement for JAMSAgentX to better handle jobs ending with a line that did not include a CR/LF; the job would hang even though it was actually complete.
A correction for File Watching for events with wildcards and a minimum size or "Available" requirement; if one of the matched files is deleted before it satisfies the size or available requirement, the file watch may never be satisfied.
Added new PowerShell cmdlets for FTP, SFTP and FTPS file transfers.
An enhancement for the Remove-Item to function if a job or setup had an ambiguous name because the job.Delete() or setup.Delete() method used the ambiguous name instead of the fully qualified name.
An enhancement to allow adding an agent with the same name as a JAMS System.
Added AcceptAllCertificates option for FTPS.
Added Timeout option for file transfers.
An enhancement for Unix/Linux precheck jobs to allow exit codes with values of 101, 102, 103 or 104 and those values will be changed to the values for CancelJobSuccess, CancelJobInfo, CancelJobWarning or CancelJobError.

Resources In Use

TonyC — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:40:07 GMT

You can query the JAMS SQL database to determine what resources definitions are currently in use.

SELECT M.resource_name,
       M.qty_available,
       IsNull((select SUM(U.qty_in_use)
                                    from dbo.ResourceInUse as U
                                    where U.resource_id = M.resource_id), 0) as InUse
FROM dbo.ResourceM as M

Release Notes for JAMS v4.9.129

VanessaB — Tue, 18 May 2010 06:15:06 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement for using a dotted decimal IP address as an Agent. We now call GetHostEntry which does a reverse lookup, takes the result and does a lookup. So, if an IP address reverses but the result of the reverse doesn't resolve to an IP address, the job can't start.
A correction when using JAMSAgentX, if a line in the log file was over 8192 bytes long, the job would hang.
An enhancement to detect when the network drops between the JAMSScheduler and a JAMSAgent and we reconnect when network service is restored. This also affects remote file watches.
An enhancement in a failover configuration, the backup server can now service clients for all functions (monitor, submit, maintenance etc).
An enhancement to improve recovery after a failure of the database server.
An enhancement to the Task Scheduler and SQL Agent tabs to combined them into the "External" tab.

JAMS AgentX vs. SSH Connections

DanielS — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:46:05 GMT

JAMS has the ability to execute UNIX scripts through the JAMS AgentX or agent-less through pure SSH connections. There four basic advantages to using the JAMS AgentX.

The job can contain a script rather than a series of commands. (i.e. , if statements, while loops, etc). The SSH execution method isn’t able to run a job as though it were a script; it runs it line by line as if one were typing it into the command line. JAMSAgentX runs jobs as a shell script; running it as a script makes it act the way most people expect it to. That’s the main purpose of JAMSAgentX.
File based Trigger mechanism require the JAMS AgentX.
Better exception capturing of the job processes are provided by the JAMS AgentX.
Reconnections. With SSH, if something fails which causes the JAMS server to disconnect, the job fails. With the AgentX, the job continues and we reconnect as if nothing ever happened.

Release Notes for JAMS v4.9.118

VanessaB — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:45:58 GMT

This release includes:

A correction to trim white space from User definition's Login Name.
Automatic addition of "Logon as batch job" permission when pushing the JAMS Agent.
Added support for the JAMS SAP Add-on
An enhancement to the Set-JAMSVariable cmdlet when the Variable has an ACL.
A correction to prevent the adding an ACL and then removing all the entries in the ACL to eilimanate a Null Reference exception.
An enhancement to Remote FileWatching to prevent cancellation when the Agent was stopped.
An enhancement to to the Monitor view to prevent a null reference exception on empty branches when scrolling.
An enhancement for when the JAMS Executor fails to reconnects to Agent jobs that were executing when the Executor failed. This has been enhanced for Failover and non-Failover environments.
An enhancement for Client GUI connection to the Failover Engine to support all operations on a Job or Setup definition.

Scripting Changes to Jobs

TonyC — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:20:23 GMT

One of the benefits that JAMS provides is the power to script the creation of new jobs, setups, systems, or any JAMS definitions.

Because the JAMS Snap-in includes a PowerShell provider, you can use native Powershell commands like New-Item or Get-Item to create or change JAMS definitions.

For Example, to create a new Job:

$job = New-Item JD:\Systems\Samples\Jobs\MyJob
$job.Description = "This job was added programmatically"
$job.ScheduledDate = "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday"
$job.ScheduledTime = [MVPSI.JAMS.TimeOfDay] "23:40"
$job.AutoSubmit = $false
$job.Source = "Dir C:\"
$job.SubmitMethodName = "Command"
$requires = new-object MVPSI.JAMS.ResReq("Widgets", 12)
$job.Requirements.Add($requires)
$requires = new-object MVPSI.JAMS.ResReq("Gadgets", 5)
$job.Requirements.Add($requires)
$job.Update()

or to change an existing Job:

$job = Get-Item JD:\Systems\Samples\Jobs\MyJob
$job.Description = "This job was changed programmatically"
$job.ScheduledDate = "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday"
$job.ScheduledTime = [MVPSI.JAMS.TimeOfDay] "21:40"
$job.AutoSubmit = $false
$job.Source = "Dir C:\Temp"
$job.SubmitMethodName = "Command"
$requires = new-object MVPSI.JAMS.ResReq("Widgets", 7)
$job.Requirements.Add($requires)
$requires = new-object MVPSI.JAMS.ResReq("Gadgets", 2)
$job.Requirements.Add($requires)
$job.Update()

Visual Styles-related operation resulted in an error - Red X

TonyC — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:42:15 GMT

You may encounter RED X across the ribbon bar and receive the following message:

Visual Styles-related operation resulted in an error because visual styles are currently disabled in the client area.

To resolve this issue, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click on "My Computer", choose "Manage" in the pop-up menu.
2. In the Computer Management, choose "Services and Applications" -> "Services".
3. In the right panel, select "Themes" service,double-click it, on the pop-up dialog, click "Start" button.
4. Right-click on the Desktop, select "Properties" item to open the Display Properties Dialog, select a theme from the Themes list.

Multiple Schedules

SheilaE — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:30:46 GMT

Job and Setup Definitions in JAMS can have more than one Schedule assigned in a comma-separated list. This allows the creation of more complex Schedules.

Setting A JAMS Variable

SheilaE — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:24:23 GMT

There are many ways to set a JAMS Variable. If you are using the GUI interface, you can use the Definitions tab Variables shortcut.

If you are using PowerShell, you can set a JAMS Variables by doing:

Add-PSSnapin MVPSI.JAMS
Set-JAMSVariable MyVariableName "The New Value"

If you are not using PowerShell, you can use our legacy command line tool:

"C:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\Client\JAMS.EXE" SET SERVER YourJAMSServer
"C:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\Client\JAMS.EXE" SET VARIABLE MyVariableName "The New Value"

Release Notes for JAMS V4.8.50

SheilaE — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:22:59 GMT

This release includes:

•    A correction to the Failover Engine that prevents duplicate jobs.
•    An enhancement to include Failover Engine status information to the About->Server->Status page.
•    An enhancement to include support for -UserName and -AltUserName to the Submit-JAMSEntry Powershell cmdlet. –UsernName can be used to override the username that the Job will execute under. –AltUserName can be used to override a username that is Execution-Method specific. The FileTransfer Execution Method will use the –AltUserName instead of the UserSecurity specified in the Job.
•    A correction to File Transfer options where the options would be set to default values every time you edited a File Transfer.
•    In a PowerShell script, you no longer have to convert PSObjects into base objects before passing them as a parameter value in Submit-JAMSEntry.
•    All FileWatch jobs are now canceled when the JAMS Agent or JAMS Executor is shut down.
•    A correction to prevent service failure if a Trigger was deleted while we were watching for a file, and file arrives shortly after.

Permissions to Convert SQL Agent Jobs

SheilaE — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:20:34 GMT

In order to use the SQL Agent conversion tab of JAMS, you will need permissions to read the SQL Agent Jobs on the target SQL instance. In SQL Server 2000, it was difficult to allow users to see the SQL Server Agent Jobs on your database server without giving the user sysadmin permissions. SQL Server 2005 makes assigning this permission much easier through the use of new database roles in the msdb database.

The SQLAgentReaderRole is a database role located in the msdb database. It is one of three new roles in this database aimed at allowing the database administrator the ability to assign more granular permissions when it comes to the administration of SQL Agent Jobs. Assigning a user or group to be a member of this role allows the user to see any SQL Agent Job located on the server instance, even the Jobs that user does not own. The user can see the Job, along with any History saved to the Job. However, the group is not allowed to execute the Jobs. To add a user as a member of the SQLAgentReaderRole, you can execute the following command:

use msdb

EXECUTE sp_addrolemember

@rolename = 'SQLAgentReaderRole',

@membername = 'username'

It is also worth mentioning the other two SQL Agent roles available in SQL Server 2005. The SQLAgentUserRole allows users to create Jobs and to manage the Jobs that they create. The SQLAgentOperatorRole allows users all of the rights assigned to the SQLAgentReaderRole along with the permissions necessary to execute local Jobs that they do not own.

In the event that you are not comfortable with assigning SQLAgentReaderRole permissions or if you are still on SQL Server 2000, there is still hope. The custom system stored procedure below is a listing of the Jobs on the system, and some detail to go along with the Job. Once you’ve created the procedure, you can assign execute permissions to the users that need to see the Jobs on the system.

use master

go

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[sp_ViewJobListing]

(

    @JobName VARCHAR(255)=NULL

)

AS

BEGIN

    IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#Results')>0

        DROP TABLE #Results

    CREATE TABLE #Results

    (

        job_id UNIQUEIDENTIFIER NOT NULL,

        last_run_date INT              NOT NULL,

        last_run_time INT              NOT NULL,

        next_run_date INT              NOT NULL,

        next_run_time INT              NOT NULL,

        next_run_schedule_id INT              NOT NULL,

        requested_to_run INT              NOT NULL,

        request_source INT              NOT NULL,

        request_source_id SYSNAME   COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT NULL,

        running INT              NOT NULL,

        current_step INT              NOT NULL,

        current_retry_attempt INT              NOT NULL,

        job_state INT              NOT NULL

    )

    DECLARE @JobID VARCHAR(100)

    SELECT TOP 1 @JobID = job_ID FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobs

    INSERT INTO #Results

    EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_enum_jobs 1, @JobID

    SELECT

        s.Name,

        CASE WHEN s.enabled = 0 THEN 'No' ELSE 'Yes' END AS Enabled,

        CASE WHEN next_run_date > 0 THEN 'Yes' ELSE 'No' END AS Scheduled,

        sc.name AS Category,

        current_step AS CurrentExecutionStep,

        last_run_date,

        next_run_date,

        CASE WHEN xp.running = 0 THEN 'Not Running' ELSE 'Executing...' END AS Status,

        ISNULL((

            SELECT CASE WHEN run_status = 1 THEN 'Succeeded' WHEN run_status = 3 THEN 'Cancelled' WHEN run_status = 0 THEN 'Failed' WHEN run_status IS NULL THEN 'Unknown' END AS LastRunStatus

            FROM

                msdb..sysjobhistory sho

            WHERE

                sho.job_id = xp.job_id AND

                sho.instance_id =

                (

                    SELECT MAX(instance_id)

                    FROM msdb..sysjobhistory sj (NOLOCK)

                    WHERE sj.job_id = sho.job_id

                )

        ) ,'Unknown') AS LastRunStatus

    FROM     #Results xp

        INNER JOIN msdb..sysjobs s on xp.job_id = s.job_id

        INNER JOIN msdb..syscategories sc on s.category_id = sc.category_id

    WHERE

        s.Name = ISNULL(@JobName, s.Name)

    ORDER BY s.Name

    IF @JobName IS NOT NULL

    BEGIN

        CREATE TABLE #JobHistory

        (

            StepID INT,

            StepName SYSNAME,

            Message NVARCHAR(1024),

            RunStatus INT,

            RunDate INT,

            RunTime INT,

            RunDuration INT,

            operator_emailed NVARCHAR(20),

            operator_netsent NVARCHAR(20),

            operator_paged NVARCHAR(20)

        )

        INSERT INTO #JobHistory

        SELECT

            sjh.step_id,

            sjh.step_name,

            sjh.message,

            sjh.run_status,

            sjh.run_date,

            sjh.run_time,

            sjh.run_duration,

            operator_emailed = so1.name,

            operator_netsent = so2.name,

            operator_paged = so3.name

        FROM

            msdb.dbo.sysjobhistory sjh

            JOIN msdb.dbo.sysjobs sjj ON sjh.job_id = sjj.job_id

            LEFT OUTER JOIN msdb.dbo.sysoperators so1 ON (sjh.operator_id_emailed = so1.id)

            LEFT OUTER JOIN msdb.dbo.sysoperators so2 ON (sjh.operator_id_netsent = so2.id)

            LEFT OUTER JOIN msdb.dbo.sysoperators so3 ON (sjh.operator_id_paged = so3.id),

            msdb.dbo.sysjobs                 sj

        WHERE

        sjj.Name = @JobName and

        (sj.job_id = sjh.job_id)

        SELECT

            StepID, StepName, Message, RunDate AS LastRunTime,

            CASE RunStatus

                WHEN 0 THEN 'Failed'

                WHEN 1 THEN 'Succeeded'

                WHEN 2 THEN 'Retry (step only)'

                WHEN 3 THEN 'Canceled'

                WHEN 4 THEN 'In-progress message'

                WHEN 5 THEN 'Unknown'

            END AS RunStatus

        FROM #JobHistory

        ORDER BY LastRunTime DESC, StepID ASC

    END

END

GO

EXECUTE sp_ms_marksystemobject 'sp_ViewJobListing'

Release Notes for JAMS V4.8.57

SheilaE — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:04:00 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to the JAMS Agent to improve restarting when jobs are executing
An enhancement to support JAMS AgentX Jobs restarting up to 5 times if a connection is dropped
Added support for SQL Authentication to the SQL Agent tab

This release addresses the following issues:

If you change a Trigger and then delete the Trigger before the JAMSScheduler has handled the change, the JAMS Scheduler will throw an unhandled exception and restart.

Resource counts were incorrect if a Job that required resources was killed while waiting for a resource.

The default SSH log level is now set to Off.

Cached objects are now cleared from the cache when we save an update to the server. This resolves issues where the cached object would not contain updates made by the server during a save (i.e., adding a default ACL).

Aborting a Job that was running on a different machine via the JAMS Agent could result in the Job terminating with a successful severity.

Force Job to Abort?

SheilaE — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:01:28 GMT

When aborting a job, you are given the option to "Force job to abort."

Whether or no you check "Force job to abort" depends on the Execution Method. In most cases, it doesn't make any difference.
For PowerShell or MS Workflow jobs, when unchecked we ask PowerShell to stop running the script. When checked, we kill the process.

Removing System Level Notification

SheilaE — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:57:38 GMT

Within a Job Definition, you can remove the Notify Names specified at the System Definition level by entering “-*,” at the beginning of the list. You can also remove individual names by entering –TonyC@mvpsi.com.

Killing a Runaway Job

SheilaE — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:47:27 GMT

JAMS makes it easy to kill a Runaway Job process through the use of a Notification Job.

Simply create a Job, called KillRunaway in this example, using the PowerShell Execution Method with the following Source:

param($JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY, $JAMS_NOTIFY_REASON)
if ($JAMS_NOTIFY_REASON -eq 'RUNAWAY')
{
    write-host "Killing runaway entry $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY"
    Add-PSSnapin MVPSI.JAMS -erroraction SilentlyCOntinue
    Stop-JAMSEntry $JAMS_NOTIFY_JAMS_ENTRY -confirm:$false
}

More information on JAMS_NOTIFY_REASON:: The reason for the notifications. This parameter could be: COMPLETED, FAILED, SHORT, RUNAWAY, STALLED or MISSED_WINDOW.

http://www.mvpsi.com/doc/JAMSClient/NotificationParameters.html

Release Notes for JAMS V4.8.73

SheilaE — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:45:09 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to JAMSAgentX to prevent retry if the failure is due to login failure or fingerprint mismatch
An enhancement to DeployAgentX to improve detecting a failed deployment
An enhancement to prevent the addition of a Setup Job with no Job specified within (which results in a PK_DupKey error the next time the Setup is modified)
An enhancement to JAMSAgentX to improve database lock handling for improved concurrency
An enhancement to improve retry handling when a connection is dropped between the JAMS Executor and JAMS AgentX
An issue is resolved passing File transfer credentials to a JAMS Agent

MVP Systems - Support

Supported JAMS AgentX Operating Systems

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.184

Disabling JAMS Server to Agent Authentication

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.171

Running Oracle Jobs

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.161

Auditing/Rollback of Jobs in JAMS

Managing JAMS for high Job volumes

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.158

Activity Name

Purpose

Recommended Minimum Server Specifications

Virtualization Support

Failover Scheduling Engine Installation

Export and Import with the JAMS.exe Command Line Environment

Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 2008 Security

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.148

Deploying JAMS Agents

How do I set the SMTP Server?

JAMSWebClient

JAMSWebClient

Agent Deployment

IIS Deployment

Self-signed Certificate Trust

Configuration

Setting Variables

Getting Variables

Submitting Jobs

JAMS GnuPG Samples

JAMS GnuPG Samples

Passphrases

User IDs

Encrypting Files

Decrypting Files

Creating Digital Signatures

Verifying Signatures

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.146

Return the Forecasted Scheduling in PowerShell

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.143

Can a Trigger submit a job each time a file arrives?

Why Triggers Using File Events Do Not Automatically Reset

SMS Text Alerts and Voice Calling Alerts

How to Cancel a Job from a PowerShell Precheck Job

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.144

Moving the JAMS SQL Database

Using the Task Scheduler Monitor

External Tab

Displaying Tasks

Task Folders

Note: After changing the Query properties for a shortcut, you will need to select the Shortcut in the Shortcut Bar and press the Refresh button in order for the Query changes to take effect.

Scheduler Versions

Converting Tasks

Note: Task conversion requires a connection to a JAMS Scheduler. The free version of the JAMS Client does not support converting Tasks to JAMS Jobs. A licensed JAMS Scheduler is required.

Note: Not all options for a Task are supported by JAMS. If an option is not supported, then you may receive an error when advancing to the next conversion step. This is done so that you can appropriately change the property of the Job.

Other Actions

Securing Your JAMS Installation

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.140

JAMS SQL Database Tables

Customizing JAMS Notification Emails

JAMS Scheduling Engine Cluster Installation

Importing existing Windows Workflows

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.137

Release Notes for JAMS v5.3.134

Release Notes for JAMS v.5.3.130

Resolve error code 255 when running SSHAgent Jobs

Push Deploy Windows Agent with local user accounts

Configuring the SAP URL

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.114

Using a JAMS Variable to Display a Common Date in Jobs

Editing a Setup definition fails with primary key violation

JAMS Server and Client Backward Compatibility

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.109

Executing a .bat file within a PowerShell Job

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.108

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.104

Release Notes for JAMS v5.2.99

Notify different users based on Job Severity

Using the SQL Server Agent Job Monitor

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