Manually scheduling cloud host requests and returns

Schedule cloud hosts request manually through the cluster management console to meet resource requirements in your cluster. You can schedule requests for a future time and date, or even optionally set requests to repeat (such as on a daily or weekly schedule). You can also specify when to return the provisioned cloud hosts, in the same interface in the cluster management console.

Before you begin

To manually provision cloud hosts from the cluster management console, you must be a cluster administrator or your user account must be assigned the HF_SERVICE_VIEW, HF_ALL_REQUESTOR_VIEW, HF_ALL_PROVIDER_VIEW, and HF_ALL_PROVIDER_MANAGE permissions.

To schedule cloud host requests through the RESTful API, see Submit requests for cloud hosts and Close scheduled requests.

About this task

Manual requests from the cluster management console are always submitted on behalf of the admin requestor.

1. From the cluster management console, go to Resources > Cloud > Scheduled Requests.
2. Click New.
3. Optional: Enter a unique request name to more easily identify and group requests. Without a request name, you use the generated Request ID to sort requests.
4. If this is a repeating scheduled request, provide how you want the request to repeat:
   1. Select Recurring request.
   2. If recurring request options are not displayed, click the down arrow next to No recurring dates specified to expand the recurring request options.
   3. Select the frequency of the scheduled request (that is, repeat weekly or daily). You can schedule requests for every day, every other day (that is every two days), every specific day (such as every Monday), every week, or specific days within the week (such as every Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays).
   4. Specify when you want this recurrence to end (that is, after a certain number of executions, or on a specific day).

   As you select the recurrence options, this builds a recurrence rule (RRULE) for IBM® Spectrum Symphony to execute your recurring scheduled requests. The No recurring dates specified value changes to the actual RRULE formula.

   You can implement simple a recurrence rule: such as, repeat every Monday and end after a specific date.

   You can build a more complex recurrence rule: for example, if you schedule a request to start next Tuesday, and for it to repeat weekly every Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, until it has executed five times, this means that the first execution will be next Wednesday, the second will be next Friday, and continue on the following Monday, then Wednesday, and finally Friday.

5. Define behavior for scheduled requests with overlapping dates or times: by default, for recurring scheduled requests, if the previous request instance is not closed, then IBM Spectrum Symphony closes it, before creating the next new request instances. To change this so that IBM Spectrum Symphony keep the previous request instance running, the Overlapping request instances list, select Allow to execute both request instances.
6. Define scheduling start and return options:
   • In the Start time list, indicate when the request should start: select to start immediately (not applicable to recurring requests), or schedule to start on a later date (from a calendar) and time (from a list).
   • In the Return time list, indicate when to return cloud hosts:
     • For a recurring request (that is, you selected Recurring request in step 4), you can specify to return after a certain number of hours, days, or minutes.
     • For a non-recurring request, select either a manual return (in this cause, do not select a return date); return after a certain number of hours, days, or minutes; or return on a specific date and time.
7. In the Request from list, select one or more cloud providers:
   • To provision hosts from a single cloud provider, choose your cloud provider's name.
   • To provision hosts from any cloud provider, choose Any provider (default).
8. Define the specifications of your scheduled request:
   • For provisioning from a single cloud provider, specify the template name. The template encapsulates all the attributes of the cloud host. Then, enter the total number of instances of that template to be provisioned. Ensure that the total quantity does not exceed the value of the maxNumber parameter in the template.
   • For provisioning from any cloud provider, specify the minimum requirements that each provisioned resource unit must satisfy, such as the number of cores and memory (in MB or GB). Then, enter the total quantity of units to be provisioned.
9. Optional: Enter comments about the scheduled request for tracking purposes.
10. Click Submit.
11. Review the summary of your scheduled request and click Submit Scheduled Request.

Results

The scheduled request for provisioning and returning cloud hosts is submitted to the HostFactory service.

What to do next

To check the status of your request, refresh the Resources > Cloud > Scheduled Requests page. Check the Message column for any errors. For additional troubleshooting, check the logs (see Troubleshooting host factory).