Job Scheduler - Overview

Overview

Basic features expected of job scheduler software include:

• interfaces which help to define workflows and/or job dependencies
• automatic submission of executions
• interfaces to monitor the executions
• priorities and/or queues to control the execution order of unrelated jobs

If software from a completely different area includes all or some of those features, this software is considered to have job scheduling capabilities.

Most operating systems (such as Unix and Windows) provide basic job scheduling capabilities, for example: cron. Web hosting services provide job scheduling capabilities through a control panel or a webcron solution. Many programs such as DBMS, backup, ERPs, and BPM also include relevant job-scheduling capabilities. Operating system ("OS") or point program supplied job-scheduling will not usually provide the ability to schedule beyond a single OS instance or outside the remit of the specific program. Organizations needing to automate unrelated IT workload may also leverage further advanced features from a job scheduler, such as:

• real-time scheduling based on external, unpredictable events
• automatic restart and recovery in event of failures
• alerting and notification to operations personnel
• generation of incident reports
• audit trails for regulatory compliance purposes

These advanced capabilities can be written by in-house developers but are more often provided by suppliers who specialize in systems-management software.