Dynamic Workload Console upgrade support for version 8.6

Fix pack 1 now supports the upgrade for version 8.6 instances. For details, see Upgrading Dynamic Workload Console version 8.6

Extended support for the following product releases

• Windows 2016
• WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5 FP 11.

  For a fresh installation of the Dynamic Workload Console version 9.4.0 Fix Pack 1 with WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5 FP 11, see the section about Known limitations and workarounds.

• Jazz for Service Management 1.1.3 CP2
• Installation Manager 1.1.8.6

Enhancements to What-if Analysis

Fix pack 1 delivers a number of enhancements in the What-if Analysis Gantt view.

What-if analysis available from non-critical jobs in a z/OS environment

In addition to launching the What-if analysis from any critical job in a z/OS environment, you can now also launch it from any non-critical job that is part of the critical network.

Assess impact on critical jobs quickly by narrowing the display of successors to only critical jobs

Show the impact only on critical jobs, excluding all other successor jobs. Viewing the impact in this way narrows the results to display only the most critical and also improves performance when there is a high number of successor jobs to display.

Optimizing performance with the capability of excluding predecessors from the view

An new option has been added to the Tdwcglobalsettings.xml file, whatIfAutoLoadPreds, that enables you to manage whether or not you want to automatically load predecessors in the view. The default setting is to avoid loading predecessors which, in the case of hundreds of predecessors, results in optimized performance.

Setting the Earliest Start Time to the Estimated Start Time calculated by the server

Even if all predecessors are not displayed in the view, you can still consider the impact of predecessors on a job's Earliest Start Time. The server calculates an Estimated Start Time for the job and through a new action named "Set Earliest Start Time to server estimation", you can set the job's Earliest Start Time, to the time calculated by the server as the Estimated Start Time.

For information about What-if analysis capabilities see Analyzing the impact of changes on your environment.

Customizable Dashboard

The following Dashboard filters are now available in a Dynamic Workload Console connected to a z/OS engine:

• job name
• owner
• job stream name
• workstation name

Higher level of control over the What-If Analysis

A new optman global option is available to administrators, to make the What-If Analysis feature optional in your environment.

Administrator's level of control over the What-If Analysis has increased with the introduction of a new optman global option. By setting the optman enWhatIf | wi global option to no, administrators can centrally disable the What-If Analysis feature, which is enabled by default in your environment to simulate and evaluate the impact of changes on the current plan. You have to run "JnextPlan" to make the change effective.

For information about What-if analysis capabilities see Analyzing the impact of changes on your environment.

For information about the interaction of the enWhatIf | wi global option with the enWorkloadServiceAssurance | wa global option, which enables or disables privileged processing of mission-critical jobs and their predecessors, see Disable the What-if Analysis.

Revamped Graphical Views

Enhancements made to the graphical view of your database objects has been extended to the plan to provide a consistent view and user experience.

Consistent views and revamped user experience across graphical views: Job Stream View, Preproduction Plan View, Show Plan View, Modelling Graphical View

Simple shapes to easily identify objects have been used, new icons to improve the interaction and quickly identify actions have been created, new colors and background to better visualize the objects have been applied.

Merge Impact View with the Job Stream View to provide a more comprehensive view for monitoring and recovery actions

In previous releases the Impact View and Job Stream View were provided as separate views to monitor the progress of your job streams in the plan. With this release, the Impact View has been merged with the Job Stream View to provide a single view from where you can analyze one or more job streams, jobs, dependencies and also analyze the impact a job stream and its jobs can have on the rest of the plan. This view is available in both distributed and z/OS environments.

Automatic refresh in Job Stream View

In previous releases, any actions performed in this view that affect the plan required a manual refresh of the view using the Refresh option. With this release, the view is automatically refreshed so that the information is always up-to-date. The automatic refresh is supported only on connections to engines at the Version 9.4 Fix Pack 1 level or later.

Persistent layout

The flexibility of the layout of the graphical view from the Workload Designer in distributed environments enables you to reposition objects in whichever way is most useful or meaningful for you. If you save your layout in the Workload Designer, the same layout or positioning is maintained when you open the same job stream in the Job Stream View.

Some tips to optimize the performance of the new Graphical Views

When working with job streams with more than 500 objects (jobs, job streams and dependencies), to optimize the application performance of the new Graphical Views it is recommended that you follow some tips:

Choose Google Chrome

Chrome has better performance compared to other browsers. In some cases, it is 4 times faster than other browsers to open Graphical Views containing complex objects. Also, using Mozilla Firefox is preferable to Microsoft Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge.

Customize and save the job stream layout

When viewing job streams in the Job Stream View, first customize and save the job stream layout in the Workload Designer modelling graphical view and then open it in the Job Stream View where the same layout is reused to achieve better performance.

Use Graphical Views on a powerful client in terms of CPU and RAM

Adequately set the hardware configuration of the client machine from which the Dynamic Workload Console is accessed.

For more information see Graphical Views in the plan.

Advanced rerun flexibility

The new advanced rerun options help you orchestrate your workflows seamlessly, building recovery logic into the job definition itself and rerunning job successors directly from the Monitor Workload view.

When you create a job definition, you can now specify that you want the job to rerun for a specific number of times and after a specific interval, in case of failure. This ensures that fewer alerts are generated and the workflow continues smoothly. For example, if you have a job that needs to connect to a server which is periodically restarted, you can specify in the job definition that you want the job to rerun for a specific number of times and after a specified interval.

If the parent job ran on a workstation that is part of a pool or a dynamic pool, you can decide whether it must rerun on the same workstation or on a different one. This is because the workload on pools and dynamic pools is assigned dynamically based on a number of criteria and the job might be rerun on a different workstation.

Also, if a job fails, you can identify all its successors at a glance and decide whether you want to rerun the job with its successors. You can rerun either all successors in the same job stream, or all successors overall, both in the same job stream and in other job streams, if any.

For more information about how to specify the rerun options in the job definition from the Dynamic Workload Console see Controlling job and job stream processing.

New automation utilities

IBM Workload Scheduler Job Management Plug-in

The new Job Management plug-in is available in the Automation Utilities plug-in category. Automation Utilities are plug-ins that facilitate specific operations. Use the Job Management plug-in, to run one of the following actions on any job in the job stream where the Job Management job is running:

• Rerun
• Rerun the job and all its successor jobs
• Rerun the job and its successor jobs in the same job stream
• Release
• Release Dependencies
• Cancel
• Cancel Pending
• Hold
• Kill
• Confirm ABEND
• Confirm SUCC

The Job Management plug-in simplifies recovery scenarios and enables the automation of iterative workflows. For example, in a recovery scenario, you can insert a Job Management job in your workflow. This causes the original job to rerun automatically when the relevant recovery job completes successfully, reducing effort and time consumption.

For more information see Job Management jobs.

IBM Workload Scheduler Job Stream Submission Plug-in

The new Job Stream Submission plug-in is available in the Automation Utilities plug-in category. Automation Utilities are plug-ins that facilitate specific operations. Use the Job Stream Submission plug-in, to submit a job stream for processing.

By adding the Job Stream Submission plug-in to your workflow, you can automate the submission of a specific job stream, minimizing code scripts and manual effort. Also, you can specify the earliest start time for the job stream and define the variable table associated to the job stream.

For more information see Job Stream Submission jobs.

Condition-based workload automation

Condition-based workload automation provides a simple and immediate way to have your workflows start at just the right time. You can define in your job stream a condition that, when met, releases the job stream to run as scheduled.

For example, if you have a job stream containing jobs which analyze one or more files, you can have the job stream start only after the file or files have been modified or created. Also, if the job stream contains jobs which process the data in a database, you might want to have the job stream start after enough rows have been written into the database. You can also have IBM Workload Scheduler check repeatedly whether the condition is met.

You can start your workflow based on one of the following conditions:

• One or more files being created
• One or more files being modified
• A job completing with its output condition satisfied. You can apply this logic to the job stream or to specific jobs in the job stream.

For more information, see Condition-based workload automation.

New option for defining the latest start time in job streams

The Apply to each job check box defines the latest start time of a job stream. It also determines the behavior of the jobs in the job stream when the job stream is approaching its latest start time. Select the Apply to each job check box to avoid your job stream being suppressed if it starts right before its latest start time and the duration of one or more jobs in it exceeds the latest start time.

For more information, see the online help for the job stream properties panel in the Workload Designer.

New option for defining actions on late jobs

The Kill if deadline expires check box defines the action to be taken on a job in job stream when the job's deadline expires. If the job is running when the deadline expires, it is killed. Killed jobs end in the ABEND state. Any jobs or job streams that are dependent on a killed job are not released. If the dependency on the job is a conditional dependency on the job completing in ABEND state, that dependency is released.

For more information, see the online help for the job properties panel in the Workload Designer.

New options in managing workload applications

The following new options are available:

Export a job stream definition as a workload applications template

From the Workload Designer, you can export a job stream definition and save it as a workload application template in a compressed file. The job stream definition can then be imported in another environment. For more information see Exporting a job stream definition as a workload application template.

Rename a workload application during the import process

You can optionally rename a workload application during the import process from the Dynamic Workload Console.

For more information about new features introduced with this fix pack, see Dynamic Workload Console version 9.4 Fix Pack 1 enhancements.

Helpful videos demonstrating new features for IBM Workload Scheduler is available on Workload Automation channel.

This fix pack includes a number of fixes for internal defects found by the verification team that mainly cover the following product capabilities: installation, auditing, and mirroring.

This section lists APARs solved by Fix Pack 1.

List of APARs fixed:

IV60757

AFTER SWITCHING MANAGER CANNOT BROWSE JOBLOGS FOR ALL DYNAMIC JOBS RUN ON THE MASTER

IV72221

CUSTOMIZE THE SEARCH NUMBER OF ELEMENTS IN THE WORKLOAD DESIGNER

IV84906

SELF-SERVICE CATALOG LINK ON MOBILE IS NOT WORKING FROM MAIN PAGE

IV90870

ESTIMATED DURATION WRONG ON MONITOR JOBS IN DYNAMIC WORKLOAD CONSOLE AND CONMAN

IV92221

MANY ENGINE DEFINITIONS CAUSE PROBLEMs FOR MONITOR WORKLOAD

IV92374

JOB STREAMS STAY IN READY WHEN VIEWED FROM THE DYNAMIC WORKLOAD CONSOLE IN A NOP SCENARIO

IV93052

unable to view joblog from DWC/conman when job defined on XA hosted by DWB using jsdl and with resources

IV93638

DWC HISTORICAL REPORT SHOWING THE ACTUAL START TIME INCORRECTLYFOR JOBS THAT STARTED PRIOR TO DST

IV94433

LIST WORKLOAD DEFINTIONS DOES NOT DISPLAY

IV95222

JOB LOG TRUNCATED AFTER 100 LINES

The following are software limitations and workarounds that affect Dynamic Workload Console version 9.4.0 Fix Pack 1. For a list of known problems and limitations documented for the V9.4 General Availability release, refer to the Dynamic Workload Console V9.4 Release Notes.

After a fresh installation of the Dynamic Workload Console version 9.4.0 Fix Pack 1 with WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5 FP 11, the administrator cannot view or use any of the portlets

After a fresh installation of the Dynamic Workload Console version 9.4.0 Fix Pack 1 with WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5 FP 11, the administrator cannot view or use any of the portlets. From the Dynamic Workload Console, he can just assign manually one of the following roles to the logged in users:

• TDWBAdministrator
• TWSWEBUIAdministrator
• Administrator
• chartAdministrator
• iscadmins
• samples

To prevent this problem, run the following procedure:

1. Install WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5 FP 11
2. Apply WebSphere Application Server iFix 30449.999.744.8.5.5.10-WS-WAS-IFPI76481 available on IBM Fix Central.
3. Install Jazz for Service Management 1.1.3 CP2
4. Install the Dynamic Workload Console version 9.4.0 Fix Pack 1

The iFix enables Jazz for Service Management mapping between Dynamic Workload Console user roles and the administrator role.

If you install the iFix after installing the Dynamic Workload Console, you can manually map user roles and administrator role by running the following commands from the Dashboard Application Services Hub consolecli command line:

Run [JazzSM_Install_path]/ui/bin/tipcli.sh MapUsersToRole   --username <TDWCadmin>   --password <TDWCadminpassword>   --roleName TWSWEBUIAdministrator   --usersList   uid=admin,o=defaultWIMFileBasedRealm  Run[JazzSM_Install_path]/ui/bin/tipcli.sh   --username <TDWCadmin>   --password <TDWCadminpassword>    --roleName TDWBAdministrator   --usersList   uid=admin,o=defaultWI

Job streams graphically overlap in the graphical view (178184)

When loading job stream B in the graphical view, and job stream B has a dependency on job stream A, if job stream B contains a large number of objects, it might happen that opening job stream B it can graphically overlap job stream A.

Workaround: To workaround this problem, click the auto-layout button to rearrange the graphical view, or manually adjust job stream B layout in the view.

In the Job Stream View, a job stream with hundreds of objects (jobs and dependencies) might not be saved in PNG format (179497)

In the Job Stream View, trying to save a job stream with hundreds of objects (jobs and dependencies), the image might look corrupted and might not be possible to save it.

Workaround: To workaround this problem, save the job stream in SVG format and then use the appropriate tool to convert it from SVG to PNG format.

Connecting the Dynamic Workload Console version 9.4.0 Fix Pack 1 to an engine machine running IBM Workload Scheduler version 9.3.0 Fix Pack 3 or earlier, some functions might be missing.

The product features available from the Dynamic Workload Console are fully supported when connecting to a version 9.4.x engine through the Representation State Transfer Services (REST) programming interface represented by port number 31116 (default port). However, this connection does not ensure a complete functionality when connecting to previous engine versions (version 9.3.0 Fix Pack 3 or earlier).

Workaround: When connecting the Dynamic Workload Console version 9.4.0 Fix Pack 1 to an engine running IBM Workload Scheduler version 9.3.0 Fix Pack 3 or earlier, modify the port number for your engine connections to the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) interface represented by port number 31117.

Disabling the plan mirroring on the engine and submitting a job stream into the current plan, the status of the internal jobs is not updated in the graphical view.

The limitation is due to the fact that, disabling the plan mirroring, the information stored in the IBM Workload Scheduler database are not available. The same problem happens if the IBM Workload Scheduler database is down.

For the steps needed to configure the Dynamic Workload Console to use all the authenticated portal user roles see Configuring roles to access the Dynamic Workload Console.

Read this section thoroughly before installing this fix pack.

Dynamic Workload Console version 9.4.0 Fix Pack 1 supports all product versions indicated in the Dynamic Workload Console version 9.4 Release Notes which can be accessed at the following link: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27048864#interoptable.

Before starting the fix pack installation, ensure that you have the following space available in the file system. The values indicated in the table show the disk space required by the Dynamic Workload Console alone. For the disk space required by other components, see the relevant documentation. For the most up-to-date information about disk space and memory requirements, generate a dynamic hardware requirements report from the IBM Software Product Compatibility Reports web site at the following URL: http://www-969.ibm.com/software/reports/compatibility/clarity-reports/report/html/hardwareReqsForProduct?deliverableId=196702D00EBC11E58BF1AF9D8B1D437A&osPlatforms=AIX|HP|IBM%20i|Linux|Solaris|Windows|z/OS&duComponentIds=S002|S001|A005|A003|A004.

If the installation fails because of lack of free disk space, you must stop the installation, free space on your disk, and start the installation again.