MVP Systems - Support

Using Date Variables inside File Events for Trigger Definitions

gennarop — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 08:52:03 GMT

You can utilize Date Variables in the path, for file events, in a Trigger Definition in JAMS.

Start with the following:

Create a Variable with a Date format value. The date format by default is set to MM/DD/YY. You must supply a date as a default value.
Set the variable using whichever method you choose. Powershell might work best in this case. For example, use the "Set-JAMSVariable" command-let to set the variable, make sure you use the format above.
When calling the variable, go to the file event trigger and use this example as a guide to the path for the file:
D:\Temp\MyFile_<<MyVariableDate("MMddyy")>>.txt
This will search for a file with the file name MyFile_060713.txt assuming you have your "MyVariableDate" variable definition set to "06/07/13".

Using the SQL Server Agent Job Monitor

MattV — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:59:54 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 three supported versions of SQL Server Agent, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2012. The version in 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 2012 installed, then it will be able to access Job information from other instances running SQL Server 2012. It will also be able to access Jobs from instances running SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008.

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.

Release Notes for JAMS v6.0.563

DanielS — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 06:30:04 GMT

This release includes:

A correction to allow when removing a server definition. (Client)
A correction to setups not completing correctly when released or canceled. (Scheduler)
An enhancement to allow Workflow activity tracking updates in real time. (Scheduler)
A correction to force Log file time stamps to now use local time. (Scheduler, Agent)
An enhancement to improve error reporting. (Scheduler)
A correction to the title of a view to update when moving from one folder to another. (Client)
An enhancement to Batch Queues to setup job can only borrow a queue slot when the setup and setup job are in the same queue. (Scheduler)
A correction an issue when using the UseEnvironmentVariables submit option. (Client)
A correction to the first job in a setup definition that could duplicate the resource requirements which results in a primary key violation. (Scheduler)
A correction for the default server setting was sometimes not being saved. (Client)
An update to the initial value for "Retain Option" to "Not Specified". (Scheduler, Client)
A update to address New Job wizard resize layout issues. (Client)
An updated to the new OS400 Iseries QSYSOPR view. (Client)

The JAMS v5.4.239 release includes:

An enhancement to JAMS Web controls to now support international date formats (Scheduler)
An enhancement to allow specifying a comma separated lists of AD groups in the GrantBypassGroup configuration setting (Scheduler)
A correction to throttle events being sent to clients running the JAMS Monitor (Client)
A correction to prevent potential database deadlocks when a file or mail event fires a trigger (Scheduler)

Running Oracle Jobs in JAMS

gennarop — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:28:15 GMT

Here are two ways to run Oracle jobs with JAMS:

If you want to run an Oracle job on Linux, create a new Execution Method in JAMS that is a copy of the SSHAgent execution method.
Then, edit the new execution method and set the Template to be:

#!/bin/sh
source ~/.bash_profile
#----Create script file----
JOBFILE=`mktemp`
cat > $JOBFILE << EOFMARKER
<<JAMS.Source>>
EOFMARKER
#----Run script----
sqlplus / < $JOBFILE
#----Cleanup----
rm $JOBFILE

Create a job that uses your new execution method and enter the SQL in the Source tab.

If you have the Oracle Client for .NET installed on a Windows machine, you can use our OleDbCommand execution method.

Add a job that uses that execution method.
Add a parameter named "ConnectionString" with a value similar to:

Provider=OraOLEDB.Oracle;Data Source=MyOracleDB;User Id=myUsername;Password=myPassword;

Put the Oracle SQL in the Source tab.

JAMSWebClient

phils — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:37:58 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.

JAMS V6:
x86
http://www.jamsscheduler.com/DownloadResult.aspx?type=V6&name=SetupWebServices.msi
x64
http://www.jamsscheduler.com/DownloadResult.aspx?type=V6&name=SetupWebServicesx64.msi

JAMS V5:
x86
http://www.jamsscheduler.com/DownloadResult.aspx?type=V5&name=SetupWebServices.msi
x64
http://www.jamsscheduler.com/DownloadResult.aspx?type=V5&name=SetupWebServicesx64.msi

Open IIS. This article uses IIS 7.0, but the process is 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".

Certificate Trust

If the client doesn't trust the server's certificate, 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 in the user's home directory. The configuration file must be given the following name including the leading period: .JAMSWebClient.config

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.)

JAMSWebClient Errors

The following is a list of errors you might encounter, along with possible reasons for each error:

Error Message	Possible Reason
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: Connection refused or org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: Connection timed out	This happens if JAMSWebServices is not running on the server, as described in the section titled "IIS Deployment".
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: Transport error: 404 Error: Not Found	This happens if JAMSWebServices is running in IIS but SetupWebServices.msi has not been installed. To host JAMSWebServices, SetupWebServices.msi must first be installed.
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 or Error: JAMSWebClient trust store not found at '/usr/local/JAMSWebClient/trustcert.jks'	This happens if the file /usr/local/JAMSWebClient/trustcert.jks is not found; it needs to be created manually by the user, as described in the section titled "Certificate Trust".
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: No user value in the rampart configuration policy or Error: JAMSWebClient username not specified	This happens if no “username=...” section is supplied in ~/.JAMSWebClient.config, and no -username parameter is supplied to the command.
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: Password CallbackHandler not specified in rampart configuration policy or the CallbackHandler instance not available in the MessageContext or Error: JAMSWebClient password not specified	This happens if no “password=…” section is supplied in ~/.JAMSWebClient.config, and no -password parameter is supplied to the command.
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: At least one security token in the message could not be validated.	This happens if the server did not accept the credentials supplied (in ~/.JAMSWebClient.config or with -username and -password parameters).
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: null or Error: JAMSWebClient server not specified	This could happen if no server is supplied in ~/.JAMSWebClient.config, and no -server parameter was supplied to the command.
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: An error occurred when verifying security for the message.	This can happen if the client’s system time is out of sync with the server. This can also happen if the client and server are using different versions of JAMSWebClient.
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: Unable to generate a temporary class (result=1). error CS2001: Source file 'C:\Windows\TEMP\x4tl2sru.0.cs' could not be found error CS2008: No inputs specified	This happens if the IIS service running JAMSWebServices does not have permission to C:\Windows\Temp. To solve this, either give the IIS user full access to C:\Windows\Temp or change the physical path credentials in the advanced settings of the web service.
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: configured.server.hostname	This happens when “configured.server.hostname” is supplied as the server, but JAMSWebClient could not resolve the hostname to an IP Address.
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: The input stream for an incoming message is null. or org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: Transport error: 405 Error: Method Not Allowed	This can happen if there is an issue with the web service application pool configuration. To solve this, try changing the .NET version and pipeline mode of the application pool.
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: Access denied by JAMS Access Control	This happens if JAMS is denying access to the web service application pool’s configured identity. To solve this, find out which user the IIS service is running as, and make sure JAMS is giving permission to this user.
org.apache.axis2.AxisFault: Can not connect to the remote host "gtcp://127.0.0.1:773". System error message: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:773.	This means JAMS Server is not running on the system hosting the service.

Release Notes for JAMS v6.0.559

DanielS — Wed, 29 May 2013 03:57:30 GMT

This release includes:

Updates to the OS400 Operator Messages view on the External Tab of the JAMS Client.
Disabled 'reliable sessions' of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) in the JAMSHost config files.
File and Mail trigger events were losing the username when they were copied.
SQL Server rejected login accounts if the machine name contained a dash.
The Submit activity now traps submit failures and handles them the same as a job failure.

How to diagnose a job that does not complete

chrish — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:17:29 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.

Temporarily change the job's execution method to enable interactive mode, as shown here:

Submit the job and wait for a dialog to appear.

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

phils — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:05:02 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 -UseVariables    #    #  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!

Queues vs Resources Explanation

gennarop — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:00:20 GMT

Batch queue is defined by number of concurrent job executions, job limit defines the limitation.

A Batch Queue could be adjusted when submitting a job, but a required Resource cannot be adjusted when a job is submitted.
Within a Queue definition, a concurrent job limit is assigned. Each job will execute within a batch queue slot.

Within a Resource definition, a total number of available units defines the limitation.

Resource intensive jobs can be configured to consume larger number of units from the pool of available units. As these jobs run they consume the available units and release them upon completion.
Resource requirements can be defined at the System(V5.x) or Folder(V6.x) and the job level. These values are added together to form the total units required for the job to begin executing.

JAMSDBA Utility

DanielS — Fri, 10 May 2013 05:09:33 GMT

The JAMSDBA.exe utility is used to manage the JAMS Database and to perform other installation and management tasks. JAMSDBA is a command line utility and is located in the Scheduler installation directory (C:\Program Files\MVPSI\JAMS\Scheduler by default). When you start JAMSDBA, you are presented with a "JAMSDBA>" prompt. You can enter the command you want to execute or enter HELP to get online help.

You can also start JAMSDBA with a command appending the command you want to execute to the command to start JAMSDBA, for example:

JAMSDBA UPDATE/LOG

***Please Note: The JAMSDBA utility must be run with the right click option for 'Run As Administrator'***

Release Notes for JAMS v6.0.558

gennarop — Mon, 06 May 2013 05:57:55 GMT

Included after each item are the components in JAMS (Bolded) that would need to be upgraded in order to realize that enhancement.

This release includes:

Removed obsolete references to RunawayCpu and Systems in JAMS.Types.ps1xml, PaladinMacros.xml and BaseMacros.xml (Scheduler)
JAMSServer was dropping timeslot OK information (Scheduler)
Invalid symbol names in job source or notification templates could lead to job or notification failures (Scheduler)
Added the "SetVariable" option to the Submit activity to set workflow variables when a job completes (Scheduler, Agent)
Added the OS400 view of IBM Series i operator messages (Client)
Increased quotas in JAMSHost.exe.config files (Scheduler, Agent)
Corrected potential NullReference exceptions in History operator overloads (Scheduler, Client)
Correction to ISchedulerEventHandlerAddIn interface (Scheduler)
If you had both SQL 2012 and SQL 2008 installed, you see a blank line in the list of external views (Client)

Securing Your JAMS Installation

DanielS — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:42:19 GMT

Security settings within JAMS are applied at the Folder definition level. Job and setups that belong to the Folder 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 v6.0.556

DanielS — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:36:40 GMT

Included after each item are the components in JAMS (Bolded) that would need to be upgraded in order to realize that enhancement

This release includes:

An enhancement for restarting a workflow job to now clear pending dependencies (Scheduler, Agent)
A correction for Elapsed time in history was not being calculated (Client)
A correction for Reference control/IsRelative(Client)
An enhancement for the Backup server in a failover configuration to now provide monitor data (Scheduler)
Parameter ordering preservation (Scheduler)
If the last job of a setup fails, the setup now halts (if it is set to halt) (Scheduler)
An enhancement to Batch queues in the monitor view for setups (Scheduler)
An enhancement to allow saving a list of groups in the GrantBypassGroup configuration setting (Scheduler)
A correction for a memory error in SQLCommand jobs (Scheduler, Agent)
A correction to MSMQ install commands (Scheduler)
A correction to copy demo license to the correct directory (Scheduler)
A correction to properly save remote dependencies (Scheduler)
An enhancement to allow Batch queue displays in history (Scheduler)
Removal of obsolete PlainTextEMail configuration setting (Scheduler)

Upgrading JAMS v5.x

ChrisW — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 03:49:03 GMT

Upgrading JAMS v5.x to v5.x:

The JAMS Scheduler for Windows can be upgraded directly over the top of an existing installation. You can simply run the new installation executable and JAMS will upgrade, using your existing database and keeping your Jobs, Schedule, etc intact.

Preparing for the upgrade process can include the following:

- Download latest JAMS release from www.jamssupport.com/downloads. You will need to be registered for an account and be logged in to access the product downloads.
- Schedule the upgrade for a less busy time in your JAMS schedule
- It is always a good idea to take a backup of your JAMS database right before the upgrade. There should be no issues with the upgrade, but it is always good to have the backup if needed.
- When you run the installation executable, you will be able to choose which JAMS components you want to upgrade. Typically, you will be upgrading at least the JAMS Scheduler and JAMS Client on the main JAMS Scheduler Server.
- During the upgrade, the JAMS installer will take care of stopping the appropriate JAMS services and bringing them back up when the upgrade is complete.
- When upgrading, make sure that the user that you are logged in as on the JAMS Scheduler machine has full admin rights to the JAMS SQL database. This is important so that the database schema can be properly updated. Giving that user sysadmin rights will typically open up all necessary permissions.

Once the JAMS Scheduler Server has been upgraded, the same installation executable can be used to upgrade any remote JAMS Client installs. Simply choose to upgrade only the JAMS Client when presented with the list of JAMS Components.

JAMS Agents can be upgraded by redeploying the Agents from the JAMS Client's "Agents" shortcut. The JAMS Agents can be automatically deployed in this case, or manually deployed, whether using Windows or Linux/Unix Agents.

Upgrading JAMS v4.x to v5.x:

If upgrading from JAMS v4.x to JAMS v5.x, you will want to be sure that the JAMS Scheduler Server can have .NET 4.0 installed without any negative effects to other applications. The same holds true for your JAMS Client machines. You will then want to upgrade the Scheduler and Client on the JAMS Scheduler Server and then upgrade all JAMS Clients on remote workstations.

JAMS 4.9 Clients are compatible with JAMS 5.x Schedulers. Pleaseread the following Knowledgebase article for information on using anolder client with a newer Scheduler - http://www.jamssupport.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50149.aspx

JAMS4.9 Agents are compatible with JAMS 5.x Schedulers, however, we dorecommend that the Agents be updated as well when you can, as there willbe enhancements to the Agent operation in the latest versions. JAMS Windows Agents require a minimum of .NET 2.0 to be installed on the Agent machine.

Upgrading JAMS v6.x

ChrisW — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 03:48:15 GMT

Upgrading JAMS v6.x to v6.x:

The JAMS Scheduler for Windows can be upgraded directly over the top ofan existing installation. You can simply run the new installationexecutable and JAMS will upgrade, using your existing database andkeeping your Jobs, Schedule, etc intact.

Preparing for the upgrade process can include the following:

- Download latest JAMS release from www.jamssupport.com/downloads. You will need to be registered for an account and be logged in to access the product downloads.
- Schedule the upgrade for a less busy time in your JAMS schedule
- It is always a good idea to take a backup of your JAMS database right before the upgrade. There should be no issues with the upgrade, but it is always good to have the backup if needed.
- When you run the installation executable, you will be able to choosewhich JAMS components you want to upgrade. Typically, you will beupgrading at least the JAMS Scheduler and JAMS Client on the main JAMSScheduler Server.
- During the upgrade, the JAMS installer will take care of stopping theappropriate JAMS services and bringing them back up when the upgrade iscomplete.
- When upgrading, make sure that the user that you are logged in as onthe JAMS Scheduler machine has full admin rights to the JAMS SQLdatabase. This is important so that the database schema can be properlyupdated. Giving that user sysadmin rights will typically open up allnecessary permissions.

Once the JAMS Scheduler Server has been upgraded, the same installationexecutable can be used to upgrade any remote JAMS Client installs. Simply choose to upgrade only the JAMS Client when presented with thelist of JAMS Components.

JAMS Agents can be upgraded by redeploying the Agentsfrom the JAMS Client's "Agents" shortcut. The JAMS Agents can beautomatically deployed in this case, or manually deployed, whether usingWindows or Linux/Unix Agents.

Upgrading from JAMS v5.x to JAMS v6.x

ChrisW — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 03:44:48 GMT

Upgrading to JAMS V6.0
Prior to upgrading JAMS from V5.x to V6.x, please review the following requirements carefully:

SQL 2000 will no longer be supported for the JAMS database. JAMS V6.0 supports SQL 2005, 2008 and 2012.
Version 4.0 of the .NET Framework is required.
JAMS V6.0 Clients are not compatible with JAMS V5.x Servers; and JAMS V5.x Clients are not compatible with JAMS V6.0 Servers. PLEASE NOTE: If you use the JAMS Client on a remote workstation machine (a machine other than the JAMS Server itself), you will need to upgrade the JAMS Client to V6.0 in order to access a newly upgraded V6.0 Server. This will replace the V5.x JAMS Client that you are currently using. If you will continue to need to access a JAMS V5.x Server, the JAMS V6.0 installer also includes a JAMS V5.4 Client that can be installed. This Client will be installed in a new directory to allow for the simultaneous usage of both Clients to connect to JAMS V6.0 and JAMS V5.x Clients.
JAMS V6.0 Servers can execute Jobs on all versions of the JAMS Agents.
JAMS V5.x Servers can execute jobs on all version of the JAMS Agents, including V6.0.
The upgrade process will create a new JAMS SQL database for V6.0 and will leave your existing JAMS database as is. Once the upgrade is complete, any changes to your JAMS Job/Setup definitions, Job Schedule, etc. will be made on the new V6.0 version of the JAMS database. The previous database will not include any of these changes and will remain in the state it was in when the upgrade began.
Since a single JAMS Client is not able to connect to both a V5.x and V6.0 JAMS server, the only way to move jobs between V5.x and V6.0 JAMS Servers is with the Export-JAMSXml and Import-JAMSXml PowerShell commands.
JAMS Systems have been renamed to Folders. Folders in JAMS V6.0 serve the same purpose as Systems in earlier versions of JAMS. In JAMS V6.0, you now have the ability to have multiple levels of Folders and SubFolders. This will allow for greater organizational capabilities for your Jobs and Setups in JAMS. In addition to Jobs and Setups, Triggers and JAMS Variables are now stored within Folders.
When the JAMS V5.x Client is upgraded to V6.0, any custom groups and shortcuts that were created for that specific Client will be lost and will need to be recreated in the JAMS V6.0 Client if you wish to continue using them.
To view more information on the exciting new features that are now available in JAMS V6.0, please visit our “New Features in JAMS V6.0” page on our website.

Here is the JAMS upgrade process when you have a Primary/Failover Server environment:

A Special Note on PowerShell scripts in JAMS V6.0:

CurrentJAMS PowerShell scripts will continue to work unless there is a changeto the path to a JAMS object. Prior to V6.0, we had a number of"simulated" folders. For example, in JAMS V5.x, to access a Trigger, thepath might be:

JAMS::localhost\Triggers\TriggerName

The"Triggers" portion of that path represents a simulated folder. Theconversion process puts all triggers into the “root” Folder. Variableswill be converted in the same manner. If you use these paths inPowerShell scripts, you can create real Folders named Triggers andVariables and move your Trigger and Variable definitions into them. Thiswill maintain the functionality of your existing PowerShell scripts.

Systems, Jobs, and Setups within JAMS will also be updated. In V5.x, you could access a Job as:

JAMS::localhost\Systems\MySystem\Jobs\MyJob

The "Systems" and "Jobs" folders were both simulated. In V6.0, the same Job is accessed with the path:

JAMS::localhost\MyFolder\MyJob

Usersthat would like to retain the V5.x syntax have the option to create afolder named "Systems", move their "MySystem" folder into it, create a"Jobs" Folder under that and then move the Jobs to that Folder.

Release Notes for JAMS v6.0.541

ChrisW — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 03:53:05 GMT

Included after each item are the components in JAMS (Bolded) that would need to be upgraded in order to realize that enhancement

This release includes:

An enhancement to show the full path to a Job, Setup, Trigger or Variable is above the name. (Client)
An update to JAMSAgentX to return localhost if it can't get the name of the host any other way.
An update to resolve an issue where if you changed the "Is Relative" checkbox in a Setup Job, you had to also make a change to the Job name or validation would fail. (Client)
An enhancement to resolve an issue where if an idle Workflow Job didn't have a timer, we reactivated it immediately. (Scheduler, Agent)
An enhancement to improve synchronization when a Workflow Job completes or is idle. (Scheduler, Agent)
An update to the JAMSContext to use HoldTime as the value for "today" rather than ScheduledTime. (Scheduler, Agent)
An update to improve the export/import of Alert references. (Client)
An enhancement to improve the error message when a Workflow Job cannot submit a Job. (Scheduler, Agent)
An enhancement to improve the PowerShell provider to support copying an object within a Folder. (Client)
An update to resolve an issue when adding a Job. If you didn't change the Execution Method, you would always get the default editor. (Client)
An enhancement to add the full path to Job and Setup references list. (Scheduler, Client)
An update to resolve an issue where the time zone was not being copied when you copied a Job or Setup. (Scheduler, Client)
An enhancement to improve transaction synchronization in the JAMSScheduler to eliminate the possibility of a deadlock at start-up. (Scheduler)
An enhancement to improve error reporting when the loading of an SSIS Job fails (Scheduler, Agent)

How to Use The JAMS File Transfer PowerShell Cmdlets

ChrisW — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 08:11:05 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.

[Add the JAMS PowerShell Snap-in]
Add-PSSnapin mvpsi.jams -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

[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:

Supported JAMS AgentX Operating Systems

gennarop — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:53:03 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

JAMS AgentX can be compiled to run on any Linux or UNIX platform. Email support@jamssupport.com and the source code will be sent to you.

Upgrading JAMS in a Primary/Failover Environment

ChrisW — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 04:11:12 GMT

Here is the JAMS upgrade process when you have a Primary/Failover Server environment:

Since both JAMS Scheduler Engines are using the same database, you will need to stop the JAMS Services (JAMS Executor, JAMS Scheduler, and JAMS Server) on both the Primary and Failover Engines prior to the upgrade. This will stop any currently executing Jobs, so you will want to do this at a time when you can have no Jobs running.
Perform the upgrade on the Primary Engine. Once the upgrade is complete, the JAMS Services will automatically start. This will also update the JAMS SQL Database.
Stop the JAMS Services on the Primary Engine again as they will have started after the upgrade.
Perform the upgrade on the Failover Engine.
Stop the JAMS Services on the Failover Engine again as they will have started after the upgrade.
Start the JAMS Services on the Primary Engine and wait a minute or two for everything to register with the database as far as the failover configuration is concerned.
Start the JAMS Services on the Failover Engine. Within a max of 3 minutes, everything should be registered with proper failover configured and running.
Go to About > JAMS Server > Status tab on both the Primary and Failover Engines via the JAMS Client. You should see that each is listed as being in the correct mode (Primary or Failover). You may need to scroll down in that window to see all of the information.

The following links contain additional information regarding the upgrade process for JAMS:

Upgrading to JAMS v5.x - http://www.jamssupport.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50197.aspx
Upgrading to JAMS v6.x - http://www.jamssupport.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50231.aspx

Reasons an upgrade of JAMS may require a reboot

gennarop — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 07:11:15 GMT

When upgrading JAMS from any version, you may require a reboot after the upgrade if one or more of the following conditions has occurred:

A job was executing at the time of the upgrade.
Someone is running the JAMS Client on the machine that you are upgrading.
Someone was in a Powershell session that had the JAMS Snap-in loaded.

Note: If you are the person running the client or the PowerShell session, Windows Installer will detect that and ask if you want to close the applications. If someone using the JAMS Client is accessing the JAMS Scheduler on the machine that you are upgrading, the machine will not require a reboot. The JAMS Client will just stop receiving a response from the JAMS Scheduler.

Release Notes for JAMS v6.0.523

DanielS — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 04:15:36 GMT

This release includes:

An correction to the Microsoft Message Queuing installation upon an initial first-time installation of JAMS
A enhancement to improve the performance of the JAMS v5.x to JAMS v6.x database conversion process to make it more than 60 times faster
An update to the Submit activity in a Windows Workflow Execution Method Job so that it will now wait, even if the Submit fails
An update to improve the handling of the common settings path
A correction for an issue that can occur when adding a machine account that is already present to the JAMS SQL Database
An update to change the Folder properties to use tri-state check boxes for "Keep Logs" and "Time Stamp Logs"
An update to the Demo installer so that disabled components always start out unchecked
An enhancement to correct an issue with the "Since the last time this Job ran" field on a Job/Setup Dependency. Previously, this was lost if you updated the Dependency without making any changes.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.238

ChrisW — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:57:44 GMT

This release includes:

An correction to the Microsoft Message Queuing installation upon an initial first-time installation of JAMS
An enhancement to correct an issue when adding Users through the JAMS Windows Client when connecting to an OpenVMS JAMS Scheduler Server

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.237

ChrisW — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 03:22:32 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to correct a MSMQ installation issue on Windows Server 2008

JAMS v5.4.235 release includes:

An enhancement to eliminate a race condition when reloading a Windows Workflow Job
An enhancement to reopen the log file if we realize that we can't use direct logging when reconnecting to a JAMS Agent
An update to add selection and update options to the JAMS Client Monitor View
An enhancement to eliminate a potential serialization error when a Windows Workflow Job completes or unloads
An enhancement to eliminate an arithmetic overflow if an OpenVMS server executes a Job that uses more than 4GB of memory
An enhancement to address an issue with JD Edwards Jobs selecting the wrong data provider

Disabling JAMS Server to Agent Authentication

ChrisW — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:16:16 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. Once this change has been made, you will need to restart the JAMS Agent service on the Agent machine. PLEASE NOTE: Restarting the JAMS Agent service will impact any Jobs currently executing on that Agent machine.

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. Once this change has been made, you will need to restart the JAMS Executor service on the JAMS Scheduler machine. PLEASE NOTE: Restarting the JAMS Executor service will impact any currently executing Jobs.

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 v6.0.514

ChrisW — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 16:42:20 GMT

Included after each item are the components in JAMS (Bolded) that would need to be upgraded in order to realize that enhancement

This release includes:

An enhancement to improve exception reporting when a Windows Workflow Job fails (Scheduler, Agent)
A correction for an issue that prevented the WaitForEvent activity from continuing if the Windows Workflow Job had gone idle between the WaitForEvent activity and the SetEvent activity (Scheduler, Agent)
An update to Correct an upgrade issue when upgrading from JAMS V5.4 on Windows Server 2003 (Scheduler)
A correction for an MSMQ installation issue on Windows Server 2008 (Scheduler)
A correction for an issue with saving the "Since Job" in a dependency definition (Scheduler)
A correction for an issue with saving the "Within time" in a dependency definition (Client)
An update to correct an issue with double slashes (\\) in path names when defining reference Jobs/Setups (Scheduler)
An enhancement to allow Job source parsing to now use search paths when looking for a matching variable (Scheduler)
An enhancement to wait until the Windows Workflow Job owner has been deleted before completing a Windows Workflow Job (Scheduler, Agent)

Using the JAMS Export/Import PowerShell cmdlets

ChrisW — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 08:32:31 GMT

Youcan export/import your Jobs, Setups, Systems, Triggers, Variables,etc with the JAMS PowerShell Snap-in and its Export-JAMSXml andImport-JAMSXml cmdlets. This is handled slightly differently whether or not you are using JAMS v6.0 or not. Below are 4 sets of examples, depending on which version of JAMS you are exporting from and importing to.

Export from and Import to JAMS v5.4 or earlier:

Export example:

# Get a list of all Jobs in a JAMS System
$job = Get-ChildItem JAMS::localhost\Systems\JAMS\Jobs\*

# Export all Jobs to XML
Export-JAMSXml C:\temp\file.xml $job

Import example:

# Import Jobs, etc in XML to JAMS
$filepath = c:\temp\file.xml
Import-JAMSXml $filepath

Export from and Import to JAMS v6.0 or later:

Export example:

# Get a list of all Jobs in a Folder within JAMS
$job = Get-ChildItem JAMS::localhost\FolderName\*

# Export all Jobs to XML
Export-JAMSXml C:\temp\file.xml $job

Import example:

# Import Jobs, etc in XML to JAMS, first setting the location (Folder) in JAMS v6.0 where you want the import to be placed
Set-Location JAMS::localhost\FolderName\
$filepath = c:\temp\file.xml
Import-JAMSXml $filepath

Export from JAMS v6.0 or later and Import to JAMS v5.4 or earlier:

Export example:

# Get a list of all Jobs in a Folder within JAMS
$job = Get-ChildItem JAMS::localhost\FolderName\*

# Export all Jobs to XML
Export-JAMSXml C:\temp\file.xml $job

Import example:

PLEASE NOTE: You will first need to edit the xml file that you exported to add the name of the System that the Job will be imported to in JAMS v5.4 or earlier. To do this, edit the xml file in a text editor such as Notepad and add <SystemName>NameOfJAMSSystem</SystemName> as an additional attribute inside of the <Job></Job> section.

# Import Jobs, etc in XML to JAMS
$filepath = c:\temp\file.xml
Import-JAMSXml $filepath

Export from JAMS v5.4 or earlier and Import to JAMS v6.0 or later:

Export example:

# Get a list of all Jobs in a JAMS System
$job = Get-ChildItem JAMS::localhost\Systems\JAMS\Jobs\*

# Export all Jobs to XML
Export-JAMSXml C:\temp\file.xml $job

Import example:

# Import Jobs, etc in XML to JAMS, first setting the location (Folder) in JAMS v6.0 where you want the import to be placed. JAMS v6.0 will ignore the <SystemName></SystemName>
# section of the export from v5.4 and will import in to the Folder specified in the Set-Location command below
Set-Location JAMS::localhost\FolderName\
$filepath = c:\temp\file.xml
Import-JAMSXml $filepath

Report Designer CHM

phils — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 05:11:45 GMT

Documentation on the JAMS Report Designer and other Winforms controls in Windows Compiled Help (CHM) format.

Download Report Designer Documentation

Note: If you have issues opening the CHM file it may be necessary to unblock the file's content. Right click the CHM file and view its properties. Next, click the option to "Unblock" the file.

iSeries Job Parameters

DanielS — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 07:06:44 GMT

The following parameters can be added to an iSeries Job:

JOBQ - 10 characters, default is JAMSJOBQ

JOBD - 10 characters, default is JAMSJOBD

LIBL - 500 characters, no default. Comma separated list of libraries

OPTION - Added to the end of the submit command, must be a properly formatted command e.g. ( 'OUTQ(ABC)')

Running SAS Jobs

DanielS — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 06:54:44 GMT

JAMS can execute SAS programs with the Windows Command Procedure Execution Method. Below is an example of an SAS job-source information:

c:\YourSASPath\sas.exe
-autoexec d:\sas\autoexec.sas
-config d:\sas\config.sas
-nologo
-log d:\work\logs\pull_sample200102131244.log
-sysin d:\YourDir\YourProgram.sas

Other SAS options are documented here.

Within JAMS you can also create a SAS execution method. This allows the source tab of a job definition to contain the contents of your SAS program.

SAS Projects (saved .EGP files) can be saved as Visual Basic scripts from the SAS Enterprise Guide and executed using the JAMS VBScript execution method.

http://support.sas.com/kb/25/275.html

JAMS AgentX: Configure Direct Logging

ChrisW — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 10:43:02 GMT

JAMSAgentX, the Unix/Linux Agent, sends log information back to the JAMS Executor which writes it to the Job’s log file. If you have a file system that can be shared by Windows and Unix/Linux, you can configure JAMSAgentX to write directly to the Job’s log file. To do this, you need to add two Parameters in JAMS:

JAMSDirectXBase – The base path for Unix/Linux
JAMSDirectWBase – The base path for Windows

These parameters can be added to a Job, System, or Execution Method. The two paths must point to the same physical location.

When JAMS is starting a Job that has these Parameters, we look at the Job’s log file name, if it still starts with the value of the “DefaultLogLocation” Configuration setting; we replace the value of the DefaultLogLocation with the value of the JAMSDirectWBase parameter. We also duplicate the Job’s log file, replace the DefaultLogLocation with the value of JAMSDirectXBase and change back slashes to forward slashes and wind up with the Unix/Linux log file name.

The JAMS Executor creates the log file, writes the initial information and then starts JAMSAgentX. Just before telling JAMSAgentX to execute the Job, the JAMS Executor closes the log file. JAMSAgentX then opens the log file to write log information directly.

When the Job completes, the JAMS Executor reopens the log file to write the final log information.

Example:

DefaultLogLocation – C:\ProgramData\JAMS\Logs
JAMSDirectXBase - /cmn/logs
JAMSDirectWBase - \\cmn\logs
System Log Location – SystemSpec
Job Name - SampleJob
Job’s Log Filename – C:\ProgramData\JAMS\Logs\SystemSpec\SampleJob.log
Final Log Filename - \\cmn\logs\SystemSpec\SampleJob.log
Final Unix/Linux Log Filename - /cmn/logs/SystemSpec/SampleJob.log

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.233

ChrisW — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 09:11:23 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to support a common log location for JAMS Failover configurations. The configuration for this option is described in the following Knowledgebase article: http://www.jamssupport.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50225.aspx
An enhancement to support direct logging from JAMSAgentX. The configuration for this option is described in the following Knowledgebase article: http://www.jamssupport.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50226.aspx
An update to resolve an issue with Remote Job Dependencies.
An update to the Submit-JAMSEntry cmdlet to convert PowerShell datatypes to the target parameter's datatype (Text, Integer, Date, etc) when using the -UseVariables option.
An enhancement to set the Job Limit to 999999 when adding a new Agent definition.
An enhancement to update to the latest release of Rebex.
An update when rolling back a transaction; If the rollback threw an exception, JAMS displayed that exception but lost the exception that caused the rollback. JAMS will now report the exception that caused the rollback.
An enhancement to catch exceptions when rolling the log files of services.
An enhancement to recurring Jobs/Setups to correct an issue where if you canceled a recurring Job while it was executing, it would still repeat.
An update to the History View query to accept the beginning and ending dates in either order.
An update to correct a possible null reference exception if you canceled a Job that had already completed.
An enhancement to correct a potential issue in the Audit Trail view that could throw an exception if you right-clicked when nothing was selected.
An update to correct a potential issue that could prevent you from recovering a deleted Job or Setup.
An enhancement to ignore circular Prechecks, where a Job is set as its own Precheck Job.
An enhancement to add support for NVarCharMax and VarCharMax Parameters for SQLStoredProc Execution Method Jobs.
An update to the HostKeyChecking Configuration option in JAMS (JAMS Client Configuration shortcut, as described in http://www.jamssupport.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50203.aspx). AcceptHostKey was misspelled as AccceptHostKey (3 c's), we now accept either spelling.

JAMS Failover: Common Log File Locations

ChrisW — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:32:15 GMT

In a JAMS Failover configuration, you want to keep your log files in a common location. But, for reliability, you want to keep the logs on a local disk.

You can configure JAMS to keep log files on a local disk while the Job executes and then move the log file to a common location when the Job completes. To do this, add a Configuration setting named “CommonLogLocation” in the JAMS Client Configuration shortcut. Set the value to be a common path (usually a network share) that both the Primary and Secondary JAMS servers can access.

When JAMS executes a Job, it starts with the value of the “DefaultLogLocation” Configuration setting and then uses the log location in the folders and log filename in the Job to build a complete path. When the Job completes, JAMS looks at the log file path, if it still starts with the value of the “DefaultLogLocation” and the value of “CommonLogLocation” is set, it replaces the default location with the common location and then moves the file. History and Curjob detail Log File tabs are updated with the new path.

Running Oracle Jobs

DanielS — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 07:30:38 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

There are several methods for authenticating with Oracle. These authentication methods are documented by Oracle here.

For example, to secure SQLPlus using external authentication, 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.

Moving the JAMS AgentX temp directory

JohnV — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:06:45 GMT

By default, JAMS AgentX will store temporary job execution information in the .jams directory under the user's home directory.

Some customers may prefer a different location. You can change the default by defining the JAMS_HOME environment variable. A good way to move the JAMSAgentX data directory is to first create the directory and make sure that it has permissions set to allow access by the accounts that will be executing jobs. Then, open the SSHAgent execution method, under the “Execution” tab, change the “Command:” field from “JAMSAgentX” to:

env ‘JAMS_HOME=/usr/JAMS’ JAMSAgentX

This example is using the directory /usr/JAMS, you can use anything you want.

Recommended Minimum Server Specifications

DanielS — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:25:24 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 jobs 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.

How do I set the SMTP Server?

DanielS — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:51:28 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>

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164242%28v=vs.90%29.aspx

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.230

ChrisW — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 03:38:55 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to address an issue where copying a Job or Setup was copying inherited ACEs on the ACL for those Jobs and Setups.
An enhancement to correct an issue where if a job failed while starting, the JAMSExecutor service could leak a thread and 6 handles, causing resource allocation issues on the JAMS Scheduler machine over time.
An enhancement to check for duplicate keys when inserting history records into the JAMS Database.
A enhancement to importing via XML files in PowerShell. The Import-JAMSXml cmdlet now supports input files that have byte order marks.
An update to JAMSAgentX for HP-UX and AIX to V5.4.5.
An enhancement to make new Agent definitions be "Online" and have a large value for the Job Limit:
An enhancement to update existing Agent definitions to set their status as "Online" and set Job Limit to > 0. As of JAMS 5.4.228, the "Online" status and Job Limit are now being respected, so upon upgrade from an earlier version, Jobs that ran on a JAMS Agent that had not been set to be "Online" or with a Job Limit > 0 would not run and would be placed in a Pending state. This is corrected in 5.4.230.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.228

ChrisW — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 05:14:43 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to detect bad SQL connections and reset the SQL connection pool when one is found.
An enhancement to correct an issue that causes corrupt log file information in a JAMSAgentX Job.
An enhancement correct the operation of the "Online" and "Job Limit" options in a JAMS Agent definition.
A enhancement to correct an issue with the Job Count that was being stored for a JAMS Agent, which could result in incorrect load balancing of Jobs across multiple JAMS Agent machines.
An enhancement to increase the inactivity limit for a Job running on a JAMS Agent and add warning messages to the Job Log file when it looks like the Job is not active.
An enhancement to correct an issue with the passing of "Uppercase" parameters when submitting a Job via the web interface.
An enhancement to correct an issue with Boolean parameters not returning the correct value when submitting a Job via the web interface.
An enhancement to trap exceptions caused by invalid characters in the "Comments" or "Author" section of a Windows Scheduled Task when attempting to import such a task on the External Tab of the JAMS Client.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.226

ChrisW — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 03:39:32 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to correct an issue where the UseVariables and UseParameters settings of the Workflow Execution Method "Submit" activity were not being saved.
An enhancement to update the Workflow Execution Method "Submit" activity to display the final status of the submitted Job if the Job fails.
An enhancement to improve I/O performance of JAMSAgentX log writing.
A enhancement to correct an issue where if a JAMS System didn't have an ACL (Security tab entries), importing a Job into the System could result in a corrupt ACL, causing future imports to fail.
An enhancement to update JAMSAgentX deploys so that JAMS can update JAMSAgentX while jobs are executing.

Jobs fail with "There are no child processes to wait for"

jays — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 04:21:35 GMT

When trying to execute a large number of jobs simultaneously, jobs may fail with the message:

There are no child processes to wait for

This happens when the job cannot allocate a Windows desktop. Each JAMS job has its own non-interactive desktop. The size of a desktop is defined in the "SharedSection" portion of the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems\Windows

This registry key value contains many entries, one of them is the SharedSection value. A typical SharedSection would be "SharedSection=1024,3072,512". The third value is the size in kilobytes of a non-interactive desktop.

Desktops are allocated from the Windows SessionView. The size of the SessionView is defined by the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\SessionViewSize

A typical value of this entry is 30 hex (48 decimal). This value is in megabytes.

If you have a SessionViewSize of 48MB and a non-interactive desktop size of 512KB, in theory, you could run 96 simultaneous jobs. But, Windows and other applications also need desktops, so the real number is less than that.

If you have jobs failing with "There are no child processes to wait for" you have three choices:

1. Increase the size of the SessionViewSize registry entry. This will require a reboot.
2. Decrease the size of the third value of SharedSection. This will require a reboot and may affect non-interactive applications that need a 512KB desktop.
3. Limit the number of simultaneous jobs. This can be done with a job limit on batch queues or with resources.

More information about Windows desktops can be found at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126962

http://blogs.msdn.com/ntdebugging/archive/2007/01/04/desktop-heap-overview.aspx

Note that this applies to WIndows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and WIndows 7 can dynamically adjust the size of SessionViewSize.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.224 and v4.9.174

ChrisW — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 03:09:27 GMT

This release (v5.4.224) includes:

An enhancement to correct an issue with copying JAMS Objects, such as Jobs, Setups, Systems, and Variables.

The JAMS v5.4.222 release includes:

An enhancement to add the Audit Trail as a JAMS Report Source.
An enhancement to improve parsing in Workflow activities so you can now reference all standard JAMS attributes and Workflow variables.
An enhancement to add UseParameters and UseVariables options to the "Submit" Workflow activity.
An enhancement to improve logging information for JAMS Scheduler when it cannot allocate a SQL connection.
An enhancement to require "Control" access to modify a JAMS Security ACL.
A correction for an issue where Job and Setup event Triggers would fire as soon as they were created or edited.
An enhancement to Job/Setup scheduling options. If you didn't specify a Scheduled Time, we subtracted one second from the Scheduled Date and ran the Job at 11:59:59PM. A missing Scheduled Time is now treated as midnight, running on the Scheduled Date.
An enhancement to resolve an issue where Audit Trail data could be missing data.
An enhancement to allow the JAMS.EXE command-line environment to work on a machine that only has V2.0 of the .NET Framework.
An enhancement to now reset SQL connections when the JAMSDBA SERVER GC command is issued.
A correction to resolve an issue where Jobs in a Setup were running in reverse priority order when using the "Scheduling Priority Modifier" option.
An enhancement to correct an issue when importing a setup from XML would not pick up the parameter settings.
An enhancement to properly release servers when there was an exception.
An enhancement to improve the way we close a connection to the JAMS Agent, which would possibly cause an "Activity Timeout" error.

The JAMS v4.9.174 release includes:

An enhancement to improved the way we close a connection to the JAMS Agent, which would possibly cause an "Activity Timeout" error.

Uploading a file to Amazon S3 Storage Service and Returning a PreSigned URL

kevin.sullivan — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 06:43:23 GMT

It is possible to utilize the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API and PowerShell commands to upload a file to the Amazon S3 storage service. The first step is to download the .NET API for AWS from here. Run through the install process and make sure it completes successfully. This will prepare your system to interact with AWS. Also be sure that PowerShell is installed on your system.

This article will assume that you have an AWS account and have a bucket created on the S3 service. This article will address uploading a file to a bucket through JAMS.

Creating the Job

To start, click the Jobs button on the sidebar under Definitions to create a new job. Name it something such as S3 Upload. Choose the Execution Method PowerShell.

Proceed to enter a system name and email address as you wish. The username you choose should be the one of your local Windows machine that is running JAMS. For the source, enter this:

Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files (x86)\AWS SDK for .NET\bin\AWSSDK.dll"

$secretKeyID="<<secretKeyID>>"

$secretAccessKeyID="<<secretAccessKeyID>>"

$FilePath="<<FilePath>>"

$FileName="<<FileName>>"

$client=[Amazon.AWSClientFactory]::CreateAmazonS3Client($secretKeyID,$secretAccessKeyID)

$request = New-Object -TypeName Amazon.S3.Model.PutObjectRequest

$request.BucketName = "<<BucketName>>"

$request.Key = $FileName

$request.FilePath = $FilePath + "\" + $FileName

$client.PutObject($request)

$newrequest = New-Object -TypeName Amazon.S3.Model.GetPresignedURLRequest

$newrequest.BucketName = "<<BucketName>>"

$newrequest.Key = $FileName

$date = Get-Date

$newrequest.Expires = $date.AddDays(<<Days>>)

Write-Host "This URL will expire at" $date.AddDays(<<Days>>)

$client.GetPresignedURL($newrequest)

There are several things to notice here. The path to AWSSDK.dll may change depending on if your system is 32-bit or 64-bit. If it is 64-bit, the above path is correct. If it is 32-bit, you will most likely have to remove the (x86) portion from the path.

The second part of this source request a PreSignedURL, which can be used to access the file from the web. If you do not want this, you can simply remove the last 7 lines of the script. The URL returned can be set to expire through the Days parameter.

After manipulating any other job variables, choose the checkbox to edit the Job definition after adding. Here, go to the Parameters tab and click Add on the bottom. There are many parameters to set, here is the whole list:

Add all of these parameters individually, you will have to fill them in when submitting the job.

Creating Key Variables

You may have noticed that there are several parameters in the source that were not referenced in the parameters screenshot above. These are <<secretKeyID>> and <<secretAccessKeyID>>. It is easier to create a Variable within JAMS to store these keys. To do this, click the Variables button on the sidebar under Definitions to create a new variable. Click the +Add button and name the variable secretKeyID. The Data Type is Text, and the Value will be your Access Key ID. You can find this at https://portal.aws.amazon.com/gp/aws/securityCredentials. Create another variable called secretAccessKeyID. The value will be the Secret Access Key found on the same page. You can now use these variables across any JAMS jobs that use Amazon Web Services.

Submitting the Job

Now that you have created the job, it is time to submit it. Click the Submit button and a dialog box with the parameters will come up.

You can refer to the AWS S3 API, but here is a basic overview of the Parameters shown:

File Path: The path to the file you would like to upload.

File Name: The name of the file you would like to upload.

Bucket Name: The name of your Amazon S3 bucket that has already been created

Days Before Link Expires: The number of days from the current date that the link will be valid until

After filling in these parameters, you can submit the job to run. It will send a request to Amazon, and the file should be uploaded. If you look at the log, the ETag should be equal to the MD5 checksum of the uploaded file.

As you can see, the ETag is equal to the MD5 checksum of the file SystemReport.html:

PS C:\Users\KevinS\> ./md5 SystemReport.html

bf2c51e7f00235e246ab6baad6b2e24e

This shows that the file was uploaded successfully. It will be found in the bucket you specified and can be found online through the Amazon console. The URL will allow you to access the file from the web. Notice that the link goes onto the second line, beyond the blue underlined link. Be sure to copy the whole link.

Backing Up MySQL Databases

JohnV — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:17:45 GMT

MySQL databases are prevalent across many Linux distributions. It is possible to back them up through JAMSAgentX.

Creating the Job
To start, click the Jobs button on the sidebar under Definitions to create a new job. Name it something such as MySQL Backup. Choose the Execution Method SSHAgent.

Proceed to enter a system name and email address as you wish. The username you choose should be the one that connects to your Linux node. For the source, enter this:

#!/bin/bash

mysqldump -u <<user>> -p<<password>> --all-databases | gzip > <<direc>>/backup_`date '+%m-%d-%Y'`.sql.gz

After manipulating any other job variables, choose the checkbox to edit the Job definition after adding. Here, go to the Parameters tab and click Add on the bottom. The first parameter will be user, insert it as shown:

The data type is simply Text. The next parameter is password, and is entered as follows:

Again, the data type is Text. The last parameter is direc, and is entered as such:

The data type is Text for this as well. Click the Save button to finish.

Submitting the Job
Now that you have created the job, it is time to submit it. Click the Submit button and a dialog box with the parameters will come up.

The User field is for the name of the MySQL user that has control of the databases. The Password field is for the password of this MySQL user. The Output Directory defines where the backup file will be located on the remote node. Note that the directory you choose must be writable by the SSH user that you choose to execute the job. In this example, the SSH user is mvp, so the output directory of ~/backups will direct the backup file to /home/mvp/backups.

The script in this job could be changed to backup just certain databases, specific tables, etc. This should give you a general understanding of how MySQL databases can be backed up through JAMS.

Trigger Jobs to Watch Files on Linux

JohnV — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:16:49 GMT

It is possible to use JAMS Triggers to monitor a file on a remote Linux node and execute a job based on a file event. Here is an example of a trigger and job that looks for a file and deletes it when it is present.

Creating the Job
To start, click the Jobs button on the sidebar under Definitions to create a new job. Name it something such as DeleteFileLinux. Choose the Execution Method SSHAgent.

Proceed to enter a system name and email address as you wish. The username you choose should be the one that connects to your Linux node. For the source, enter this:

#!/bin/bash

rm /home/kevin/rogue_file

Notice the file path, change this to whatever file you want on the Linux system. This will be the same file that you monitor in the next step.

After manipulating any other job variables, choose the checkbox to edit the Job definition after adding. Here, go to the Submit Options tab and set the Username and Agent Node Name for the Linux node. Click the Save button to finish.

Creating the Trigger

Now, click the Triggers button on the sidebar under Definitions to create a new trigger. Name it something such as Delete Rogue File.

Click next to add a Trigger Event. Click the Add button and click File Event. For File Name, choose the same file that you chose when you created the job to delete file. Also choose the same Agent node and Username. Click the Save button.

Click Next, and click the Add button and choose Submit Job. Click the .. to choose the DeleteFileLinux job. Click the Save button, proceed and click Finish.

Now, whenever there is a file named /home/kevin/rogue_file on the remote note 192.168.1.32, JAMS will execute the job DeleteFileLinux on this remote node, which will delete rogue_file.

There are many possibilities with the combination of triggers and jobs; this example shows you one way they can be utilized.

Transferring Files To/From Linux With SFTP

JohnV — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:13:16 GMT

The easiest and most effective way to transfer files to and from a Linux node is with SSH File Transfer Protocol, or SFTP. It can utilize an SSH user that you have already created and use public key authentication so that passwords are not necessary.

Creating the Job
To start, click the Jobs button on the sidebar under Definitions to create a new job. Name it something such as SFTPTransfer. Choose the Execution Method File Transfer.

Proceed to enter a system name and email address as you wish. The username you choose should be the one of your local Windows machine that is running JAMS. For the source, there are tabs that define everything about the job. On the Files tab, choose the options that you see fit

The Transfer Type should be set as SFTP to transfer the files through this protocol to a Linux machine. You can choose to send or receive files between your local machine and the remote node. In this example, we will be retrieving a file from the remote server. The Remote Server Name should be the DNS name or IP address of your Linux node. The Remote Directory is where the file you want to transfer is located on the remote node, and the Remote File Specification is the name of the file you want to transfer. The Local File Specification is the directory where you want the file to land on your local machine. In the next tab, you can choose the credentials you want to use for authorization

Here, the user kevin is chosen because: #1 there is already public key authentication set up between JAMS and the Linux node with the user kevin, removing the need for a password, and #2 the user kevin has access to the directory specified on the last tab, /home/kevin/. Make sure that both these requirements are fulfilled. Public key authentication is not necessary, you can choose a user that authenticates with a password. Basically, whatever user you use for Linux jobs, is the user you should choose here.

You can change the Retry tab as you wish. On the Options tab, change the Server Type to Unix.

After manipulating any other job variables, choose the checkbox to edit the Job definition after adding. Here, go to the Submit Options tab. Change the Username to JAMS, or whatever the user on Windows is that executes JAMS jobs. The Agent Node Name should be set as the name of your Windows machine.

You should now be ready to submit the job. Here is the log from a successfully completed job

There are many possibilities using the File Transfer execution method within JAMS.

SSH Fingerprints

JohnV — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:45:08 GMT

Purpose

The purpose of an SSH fingerprint is to verify the identify of a remote server. It prevents hackers from masquerading an illegitimate server as a legitimate one and redirecting connections to their machines. JAMS takes this into account by failing the first job for a new server by default.

Fingerprints are expressed as hexadecimal strings separated by colons so they are easy to read, for example: 43:51:43:a1:b5:fc:8b:b7:0a:3a:a9:b1:0f:66:73:a8

It is important to recognize that the fingerprint that JAMS checks on connection with a remote node is the host key, which is unrelated to the SSH public authentication keys that you may create within JAMS such as is done here.

Fingerprint Options in JAMS

It is possible to configure JAMS in several different ways to deal with SSH fingerprints. To do this, click the Configuration button on the sidebar. Click the +Add button and name the new Configuration setting HostKeyChecking.

Set the Data Type as Text, and have the value be FailFirstJob.

Finish creating the Configuration setting. Here is what JAMS will return when attempting to connect to a node with an unknown SSH fingerprint:

If you try to connect again, it will be succcessful.

Configuration Options

If you want to change the value of the setting, double-click on its name and click the value tab. The options are:

AcceptHostKey—Accepts the host key and adds the fingerprint to the cache of acceptable fingerprints. (NOT secure, defeats the purpose of fingerprint checking. Only use if you are sure of the identify of the server)

CheckParameter—Checks for a boolean parameter named AcceptHostKey and accepts the key if the parameter value is true.

FailFirstJob—Fails the first job but adds the fingerprint to the cache of acceptable fingerprints. (Default setting, sort of secure)

Now, when connecting to a remote node for the first time, JAMS will read the configuration setting here and act accordingly when encountering a SSH fingerprint not in the cache.

Public Key Authentication and Deploying JAMSAgentX on Linux

JohnV — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:39:22 GMT

There may be times when you need to deploy a JAMS Agent on a Linux server that, for security or other reasons, only supports public key authentication through SSH. JAMS supports this method through RSA or DSA keys.

Creating a User

In order to utilize this method, you must create a new user in the JAMS interface that corresponds with a user on the Linux node. It is important to note that if you plan to automatically deploy a JAMS agent, this user must have root privileges. To get started, click the Users button on the sidebar under Management and click the +Add button. As shown below, you can enter the username but leave the password fields blank.

Generating a Key

After filling out the following screens as you wish, click Finish and the user will be created. Next, double-click the new user and select Key Management. Click Generate Key and choose your preferred algorithm and key size. Remember what algorithm you choose, as you will need to know it later.

You should now see the generated key on screen

At this point, click Save Public Key and name it whatever you wish, it is not very important. Send this file to the Linux system where you want the JAMS Agent to eventually be deployed.

Setting up the Remote Node

On this Linux node, open up a shell and navigate to ~/.ssh. Move the public key file that you created with JAMS to this directory. Now, you must convert this public key file to a format that the open

OpenSSH daemon can read. Here is a script to do so:

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -ne 3 ]

then

echo "Usage: `basename $0` infile outfile (rsa or dss)"

echo "If the key is in RSA format, third argument is rsa, if in DSA format, third argument is dss"

exit 65

oneline=$(tr -d "\r" < $1 | tr -d "")

nofront=$(echo "$oneline" | sed -re 's/^.+\"//')

noend=$(echo "$nofront" | sed -re 's/-.+$//')

echo "ssh-"$3 $noend >> $2

Copy this code into a script or download the attachment and make it executable with chmod +x. Run the script as shown below:

$ ./convert.sh new.pub authorized_keys dss is the main line you need to know. In this example, convert.sh is the name of the script, new.pub is the public key file from the JAMS interface, authorized_keys is the file being written to, and dss is the algorithm I used. Recall in the first steps whether you used DSA or RSA as the algorithm, this will give you the third argument. Note: if you used the DSA algorithm, the third argument will be dss.

Note: even if you already have an authorized_keys file, it is safe to use this script because it simply appends the new line onto the existing file.

You will now need to do a chmod 0644 authorized_keys to set the correct permissions on the file. As you can see in the screenshot, the key and fingerprint are the same as was created in the JAMS interface, but it is now properly formatted for the OpenSSH daemon.

Creating a New Agent

At this point, you should be all set up on the remote node side. In JAMS, click the Agents button on the sidebar under Management and click the +Add button. Enter the DNS name or IP address of the node and then select the platform, which should be Linux-i386 or Linux-i386_64. Select the user that you just created on the next screen to deploy the JAMS agent. You can leave the port as 0 as long as the SSH port on the node is the default.

After finishing this process, JAMS will attempt to deploy the agent. If the JAMS settings are default, there is a good chance that the job will fail because of the SSH fingerprint-monitor the log to see if this is the case. If so, simply go back to Agents on the sidebar, right click on your new node, click Deploy, and again select the user you created.

As you can see here, JAMSAgentX has been successfully deployed and you can now use JAMS to send jobs to the new agent node.
Conveniently, Public Key Authentication can now be used to execute all your JAMS jobs on this Linux node.

Running Perl Scripts

JohnV — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:32:40 GMT

Creating the Execution Method

In order to execute Perl scripts through JAMS, you must first create an Execution Method to tell it how to do so. To do this, click the Execution Methods button on the sidebar and click the +Add button. Name the Execution Method Perl, and choose the Execution Type SSH Agent. Check the checkbox to edit the Execution Method definition after creating it.

Here, under the Execution tab use the command JAMSAgentX or possibly the full path to the JAMSAgentX binary on your Linux node if it is in an irregular location. The Type should already be set as SSH Agent.

On the Template tab, add these two lines:

#!/usr/bin/env perl
<<JAMS.Source>>

This tells JAMS to use Perl on the Linux node and then insert the source you define in the job, which we will cover next.

Creating the Job

The next step is to create a job that utilizes the Perl Execution Method. Click the Jobs button in the sidebar and click the +Add button. In the job definition wizard, name your job and optionally add a description. When asked to pick an Execution Method, choose Perl. When asked to pick a username, select the username of the user on your Linux agent node.

On the source tab, insert whatever Perl script or program you wish. Here we have a simple script that utilizes Perl functions.

After manipulating any other job variables just as you would any other job, you can submit the job to run. Make sure to use your node's DNS name or IP address in the Agent Node box. Here is the log after this job successfully ran

Highlighted is what the Perl script returned from the remote node.

You can place virtually any Perl script or program into the Source section of a job to have it run through JAMS.

Running PHP Scripts

JohnV — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:31:28 GMT

Creating the Execution Method

In order to execute PHP scripts through JAMS, you must first create an Execution Method to tell it how to do so. To do this, click the Execution Methods button on the sidebar and click the +Add button. Name the Execution Method PHP, and choose the Execution Type SSH Agent. Check the checkbox to edit the Execution Method definition after creating it.

On the Template tab, add these two lines:

#!/usr/bin/env php
<?php
<<JAMS.Source>>
?>

This tells JAMS to use PHP on the Linux node and then insert the source you define in the job, which we will cover next. Notice that the template includes the opening and closing PHP tags so they are not necessary in the actual source.

Creating the Job

The next step is to create a job that utilizes the PHP Execution Method. Click the Jobs button in the sidebar and click the +Add button. In the job definition wizard, name your job and optionally add a description. When asked to pick an Execution Method, choose PHP. When asked to pick a username, select the username of the user on your Linux agent node.

On the source tab, insert whatever PHP script or program you wish. Here we have a simple script that utilizes PHP functions. Remember not to include the <?php and ?> opening and closing tags.

Highlighted is what the PHP script returned from the remote node.

You can place virtually any PHP script or program into the Source section of a job to have it run through JAMS.

Running Ruby Scripts

JohnV — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:30:00 GMT

Creating the Execution Method

In order to execute Ruby scripts through JAMS, you must first create an Execution Method to tell it how to do so. To do this, click the Execution Methods button on the sidebar and click the +Add button. Name the Execution Method Ruby, and choose the Execution Type SSH Agent. Check the checkbox to edit the Execution Method definition after creating it.

On the Template tab, add these two lines:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
<<JAMS.Source>>

This tells JAMS to use Ruby on the Linux node and then insert the source you define in the job, which we will cover next.

Creating the Job

The next step is to create a job that utilizes the Ruby Execution Method. Click the Jobs button in the sidebar and click the +Add button. In the job definition wizard, name your job and optionally add a description. When asked to pick an Execution Method, choose Ruby. When asked to pick a username, select the username of the user on your Linux agent node.

On the source tab, insert whatever Ruby script or program you wish. Here we have a simple script that utilizes Ruby functions.

Highlighted is what the Ruby script returned from the remote node.

You can place virtually any Ruby script or program into the Source section of a job to have it run through JAMS.

Paladin Response Options

DanielS — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 10:25:57 GMT

When you receive an alert from Paladin (phone call or SMS message), you'll be asked to choose one of the following options:

Continue Setup
- This tells JAMS to resume a halted setup, assuming this is what triggered the alert.
Restart Job
- This tells JAMS to restart the failed job that caused the alert.
Escalate
- This increases the severity level of the Paladin event by one.
Ignore
- This tells Paladin not to notify the user about this event for an hour.
Resolve
- This will resolve the Paladin event, so it will no longer create alerts.

Getting started with PowerShell

DanielS — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 10:23:29 GMT

PowerShell is Microsoft's new scripting and command line environment. It's a teriffic tool that will change the way that you manage your Windows machines. This article will help you get started using the JAMS PowerShell snap-in.

Before you can use the JAMS PowerShell snap-in, you have to have PowerShell. If you don't already have PowerShell, you can download it from:

http://www.Microsoft.com/PowerShell

This is also a good place to learn about PowerShell.

Once you have PowerShell installed, you have to make sure that you have to JAMS PowerShell snap-in installed. If you installed the JAMS Client before PowerShell you must reinstall the JAMS Client to get the PowerShell snap-in.

Before you can use a PowerShell snap-in, you have to add it to your PowerShell environment. You do that with the Add-PSSnapin cmdlet. Add the JAMS Snap-in like this:

PS C:\> Add-PSSnapin MVPSI.JAMS

To get a list of the commands in the JAMS Snapin, enter:

PS C:> Get-Command -PSSnapIn MVPSI.JAMS

To get help on any of those commands (or any other PowerShell command), try:

PS C:\> Get-Help the-command-you-want-help-with

Licensing Cluster Nodes

DanielS — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 06:34:47 GMT

JAMS requires each node of a Microsoft Cluster to have a valid JAMS license.

This is true of Scheduling Engines and Agent nodes, regardless of the active/passive status of the cluster resource.

Some customers prefer to reference the logical cluster name, not each individual node of the cluster when connecting with a JAMS Client.

There is a configuration option of a cluster service (Use Network Name for computer name) that allows for this.

Running Python Scripts

JohnV — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:24:16 GMT

Creating the Execution Method

In order to execute Python scripts through JAMS, you must first create an Execution Method to tell it how to do so. To do this, click the Execution Methods button on the sidebar and click the +Add button. Name the Execution Method Python, and choose the Execution Type SSH Agent. Check the checkbox to edit the Execution Method definition after creating it.

On the Template tab, add these two lines:

#!/usr/bin/env python
<<JAMS.Source>>

This tells JAMS to use Python on the Linux node and then insert the source you define in the job, which we will cover next.

Creating the Job

The next step is to create a job that utilizes the Python Execution Method. Click the Jobs button in the sidebar and click the +Add button. In the job definition wizard, name your job and optionally add a description. When asked to pick an Execution Method, choose Python. When asked to pick a username, select the username of the user on your Linux agent node.

On the source tab, insert whatever Python script or program you wish. Here we have a simple script that utilizes Python functions.

Highlighted is what the Python script returned from the remote node.

You can place virtually any Python script or program into the Source section of a job to have it run through JAMS.

Running Bash Scripts

JohnV — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:22:04 GMT

To execute Bash scripts on a Linux node with JAMSAgentX installed, first create a job. In the job definition wizard, name your job and optionally add a description. When asked to pick an execution method, choose SSHAgent. When asked to pick a username, select the username of the user on your Linux agent node.

In the source tab, the script must start with #!/bin/bash to define the shell that should be used. From here, you can have whatever script you want, as it will be passed on to the agent node. Here is a very simple example

As you can see, the job was deployed through the SSHAgent and executed on the remote node through JAMSAgentX. The line Linux MVP-virtualbox 3.2.0... is the result of uname -a and was run on the Linux node.

There are endless possibilities for running Linux Bash jobs through JAMS, as anything that can be done in a Bash script can be executed through JAMS.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.215

JohnV — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:31:29 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to prevent deadlocks when multiple Jobs and/or Triggers are waiting on the same file.
An enhancement to correct a null reference exception when SCOM uses our PowerShell Snap-in. SCOM was passing a null host object.
An enhancement to correct an issue with trying to download a file twice when using the File Transfer execution method with wildcards.

Return the Forecasted Scheduling in PowerShell

DanielS — Tue, 29 May 2012 10:29:13 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() )

}

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.210

DanielS — Tue, 22 May 2012 06:17:53 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to resolve an issue where the JAMS Scheduler service could deadlock if multiple Jobs were starting at the same time and they depended on the same file. You could also encounter the same deadlock with combinations of dependencies and the Wait-JAMSEntry cmdlet.
An enhancement to now dispose of any SQLConnection that rolls back a transaction.
When a Job is started on an Agent machine, the actual node name of the machine is returned and saved. This eliminates issues with reconnecting to the wrong machine if the original Agent node that was specified is really some sort of virtual IP address or DNS address list.
An enhancement to correct an issue when copying a job or setup and the Security was not being copied.
Added support for a JAMSNoMatchIsSuccess parameter which will make a Job complete successfully if the Job has a Regex matching pattern defined but there are no matches. Simply add a parameter to your Job (or System or Execution Method) named JAMSNoMatchIsSuccess, give it a Boolean data type, and a value of True.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.208

DanielS — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:15:28 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to correct an issue with auto-reset Triggers. When using the "Reset when fired?" option in a JAMS Trigger, the Trigger was resetting as soon as it fired instead of waiting for the Job(s) and/or Setup(s) that the Trigger submitted to complete. This made the Triggers unreliable and has now been corrected.

The JAMS v5.4.207 release includes:

Added Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 and 2012 add-in.
Added Oracle E-Business Suite add-in.
An enhancement to correct an issue where adding a Setup with no Jobs defined would result in an error when editing the Setup and adding Jobs at a later time.
An enhancement to correct an issue where a file watch that specified the local JAMS Scheduler machine would still try to use the JAMS Agent to execute the file watch.
Enhancements to "Pending longer than" (Stalled) notifications to correct an issue that resulted in notification being sent when the Job was executing.
An enhancement to modify the operation of changing a JAMS Agent's port. Previously, the JAMS Scheduler service did not pick up the change until it was restarted but will now recognize the change immediately.
An enhancement to resolve an issue where if the Sample Jobs library was searched (Query button) and returned zero results, the next search would always fail.
An enhancement to add the capability to start or stop multiple JAMS Queues at once.
An enhancement to correct a "password too short" issue when using public/private keys for JAMS User definitions.
An enhancement to address an issue where if a Precheck Job could not be submitted and there was no precheck interval specified, JAMS was not using the default interval, but rather an interval of zero.
An enhancement to address an issue where rolling back a Job definition to a previous version was not picking up the previous values of parameter validation fields.
An enhancement to correct an issue where if you called Curjob.SetStatus(), the status was updated but the curjob had to be reloaded to see it.

Could not load type error when adding the JAMS PowerShell snap in

JohnV — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:48:01 GMT

When you try to add the JAMS PowerShell snap-in, you receive a message like:

Add-PSSnapin : Could not load type 'System.Management.Automation.OutputTypeAttribute' from assembly 'System.Management.
Automation, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35'.
At C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\profile.ps1:3 char:13
+ Add-PSSnapin <<<< MVPSI.JAMS
PS C:\Documents and Settings\Joe>

This happens when you try to use the JAMS Snap-In with PowerShell V1.0. Upgrading PowerShell to V2.0 will resolve this issue.

Release Notes for JAMS for OpenVMS v4.2V

ChrisW — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:36:11 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to improve error reporting when a job definition is deleted while it is still in the schedule.
An enhancement to allow the value for /LOG= to be up to 256 bytes.
An enhancement to correct an issue with sys$persona_assume on old versions of OpenVMS.
An enhancement to correct an issue where the JAMS_SCHEDULE process was not properly releasing acquired resources when the resources were node specific.

Resolving "Job update failed: No mapping between account names and security IDs was done" error

ChrisW — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:36:49 GMT

When attempting to save edits that have been made to a Job or Setup definition in JAMS, you may see an error such as the following:

Job update failed
No mapping between account names and security IDs was done

This error indicates that the Security tab, located in the properties of the Job/Setup definition, has an Access Control Entry for a User or Group that does not map to an existing User/Group. Please check the Security tab and remove any Users/Groups that no longer exist.

You may also need to check the System definition properties for the System that this Job belongs to, as Security ACE's can be set at the System level and inherited by all of the Jobs and Setups that are a part of that System.

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.201

ChrisW — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 06:24:19 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to correct a datasource issue for Job and Setup Reports
An enhancement to correct issues in the PowerShell provider when trying to copy or move Configurations, Systems, and DateTypes.
An enhancement to correct an issue that dropped the default value variable name when importing a parameter via an XML Job definition.
Improvement of error reporting when decrypting a password fails.
Enhancements to correct a race condition that could result in a deadlock which leads to a GenuineChannels timeout.
An enhancement to allow for the proper submission of a Job when that Job has a date parameter with a default value that is an invalid date.
An enhancement to resolve an issue when importing Jobs via XML - If a Job was extracted to XML and then had some of its enumerated properties removed (Dependencies, Parameters, etc.), upon import, the Job would still have the properties that were removed.
An enhancement to add latent support for long parameter values. This will be fully implemented in a future release of JAMS. For JAMS v5.4.201, the directions in the following Knowledgebase article must be followed to configure this:
http://www.jamssupport.com/Download50186.aspx
An enhancement to add support for setting and getting Setup Parameter values. When a Job in a Setup defines a Global Name for a Parameter, the Global Name is added to the Setup (you can see them in the Parameters tab of the Setup). The Jobs in the Setup can then use Set-JAMSParameter and Get-JAMSParameter with the -Setup option to set and get the value of the Parameter.

Global Name being defined for Setup Job Parameters:

Global Name in use with Get-JAMSParameter and Set-JAMSParameter PowerShell cmdlets:

Release Notes for JAMS v5.4.193

ChrisW — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 05:01:39 GMT

This release includes:

An enhancement to remove a dependency on version 3.5 SP1 of the .NET Framework for JAMS Agents. JAMS Agents are now only dependent on having .NET 2.0 installed on their respective machines.
An enhancement to the JD Edwards add-on for JAMS to enable sending reports to a printer.

JAMS v5.4.192 also included:

Updates to the JAMS PeopleSoft Add-on
An enhancement to set the default value of the KeepCompleted Configuration setting to 10 minutes for new installations of JAMS. Existing JAMS installations will not have this setting overwritten.
An enhancement to correct a potential deadlock when a "job changed" event was in the MSMQ queue when the JAMS Scheduler Windows service starts.
Added support for -Comment parameter to be used with Submit-JAMSEntry PowerShell Snap-in cmdlet. This parameter allows for a custom note to be supplied upon submission of the Job when using Submit-JAMSEntry. This note will appear on the Status tab of the Job's details inside the "Note" section:

Added authentication information to the JAMS Sample Website to show what User account is being used for the connection to the site.
An enhancement to correct an issue when using the .NET Class Library to query history while using integer search criteria.
An enhancement to make notepad.exe the default editor for the Debug-JAMSEntry PowerShell Snap-in cmdlet.

JAMS Downloadable Documentation

DanielS — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 03:42:57 GMT

All JAMS documentation in a downloadable Zip file.

http://www.jamsscheduler.com/Doc/JAMS_Downloadable_Documentation.zip

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.

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

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

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.