www.segus.com

A Usable Web Interfacefor

IBM's distributedTivoli Workload Scheduler

(TWS)

By Tully Krastins

Table of Contents

ContentsINTRODUCTION...........................................................1

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TIVOLIWORKLOAD SCHEDULER GUI...............................1

WHAT IS USABILITY? ................................................3

A USABLE TWS GUI ....................................................4

A QUICK LOOK AT TWS/WEBADMIN..................5

WORKING WITH THE DATABASE .....................................................6WORKING WITH THE PLAN ............................................................13SUPPORTING THE ADMINISTRATOR...............................................19WORKING WITH REPORTS .............................................................24

IN SUMMARY ..............................................................26

ABOUT SEGUS INC. ...................................................27

TWS/WebAdmin is a trademark of HORIZONT GmbH.IBM and Tivoli are trademarks or registered trademarks ofInternational Business Machines Corporation.

Other company, product and service names are the trademarks orservice marks of others.

© Copyright T.Krastins, SEGUS Inc, HORIZONT GmbH, 2005All Rights Reserved

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IntroductionMaintaining a high level of productivity within theOperations staff is the challenge every OperationsManager faces today. Service Level Agreements aredemanding increasingly higher levels of availability atboth the front and back ends of business processes.

Any downtime of application processing affects businessprocess continuity to the extent that even batch jobscheduling, long considered a stepchild of informationtechnology, is now regarded as mission-critical.

Consequently, workload management software, such asthe Tivoli Workload Scheduler (TWS), must be easy touse and have an intuitive User Interface (UI).

Every software developer will assure you that the userinterface is an integral part of any application beingbrought to market. Unfortunately, UI design anddevelopment often lags behind the core application interms of priority, budget and focus.

Yet in the eyes of the customer, the user interface is theproduct. It is mostly through the UI that the customerrates the application. Customers want to accomplishtheir tasks with the least amount of effort and the leastdaunting learning curve.

A Brief History of the TivoliWorkload Scheduler GUIWhen the company Unison ported Maestro from MPE toUnix in the mid 1980’s, they outsourced the GraphicalUser Interface (GUI) development to a small companyspecializing in user interfaces.

That user interface was elegant in its simplicity. It wasintuitive, making it easy to learn and use. It trackeddirectly to the command line interface (CLI) where

About the Author:

Tully Krastins, Presidentand CEO of Avots Interna-tional, has over 30 yearsexperience in all facets ofIT, including operations,software development,system engineering, andprogram and corporate man-agement. Tully is an inter-nationally respected subjectmatter expert in workloadmanagement solutions. Hehas been an independentprofessional services assetfor both Unison and Tivoli.Several Fortune 500 com-panies are among his clien-tele. Tully can be contactedat tulllyk@avots.com.

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definitions were accomplished through “composer”, andplan management was accomplished through “conman.”

The GUI provided Schedulers with a straightforwardmeans of defining and managing scheduling objectsusing “gcomposer.” On the management side,“gconman” provided operators with meaningfulinformation when a situation requiring action wasrequired-usually with just a point and a click.

It did require the added expense of Exceed or other X-Windows software for desktop access. It also had itsshare of usability inconsistencies across panels and itssome quirks (such as leaving orphaned processesbehind). Overall, however, it received very high marksfrom the user community.

As Web-based portals emerged into general acceptance,there was some grumbling in the user community aboutMaestro’s continued reliance on interfacing throughX11.

To this end, Tivoli went to work on redesigning the GUIand unveiled the new interface product with the releaseof Version 7 of what was now the Tivoli WorkloadScheduler (TWS). The product of their developmenteffort is the java-based Job Scheduling Console (JSC).

An unanticipated issue arose immediately: Customeroperations staffs resisted the radical change ininterfacing with TWS. Seasoned veterans rapidlydiscovered that the old gmaestro suite–the legacy GUI-still worked with TWS Version 7 and, while no longersupported, with TWS Version 8.1 as well. What was theroot cause of the rebellion? The underlying issue, simplystated, was the usability factor.

The Maestro GUI,gmaestro, consisted ofgcomposer for objectdefinition, andgconman for planmanagement.

The final sunset forthe Maestro GUIarrived with therelease of TWS V8.2.

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What Is Usability?Show the same user interface to any number ofprogrammers and you will get that number of argumentson how good (or bad) it is. Everyone has a personalpreference and an opinion of what makes a good design.Should the real issue not take into consideration whatmakes the given task easiest? Is that not what makes theUI usable?

While some end users may appreciate pretty graphicswith sophisticated visual controls and a 3D look andfeel, ultimately they all want a system that is easy tolearn, easy to use, and that helps them do their work -quickly.

Before he became a self-anointed web design guru, Dr.Jacob Neilson focused on engineering user interfaces. Inthat role he developed ten fairly broad heuristics fordesigning a good user interface system. Five of those arerigorous enough to be called "rules" that can still providea general framework and meaningful objectives for gooduser interface design:

⇒ First Rule: “Good systems are usable-without helpor instruction-by a user having knowledge andexperience in the application domain but noexperience with the system.” - Access

⇒ Second Rule: “Good systems do not interfere withor impede efficient use by a skilled user havingsubstantial experience with the system.” - Efficacy

⇒ Third Rule: “Good systems facilitate continuousadvancement in knowledge, skill, and facility andaccommodate progressive change in the usage as theuser gains experience with the system.” - Progression

⇒ Fourth Rule: “Good systems support the real workthat users are trying to accomplish, making it easier,simpler, faster, or more fun.” - Support

Jacob NeilsonUsability Engineering(Academic Press, 1993)

Ultimately, usability isaccomplished byarchitecting a userinterface that fits withwhat the end user istrying to accomplish.

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⇒ Fifth Rule: “Good systems are suited to theconditions and environment of the actual operationalcontext within which they are developed.” – Context

Usability, then, is not derived from rows of prettycolored icons, from floating toolbars or from 3D dialogboxes. Usability is not in the quantity of widgets usedbut rather in how the included widgets work together.

A Usable TWS GUIAs mentioned earlier, an outside company built thelegacy Maestro GUI. Now an outside company has builta usable GUI for TWS. TWS/WebAdmin, from SEGUSInc, has a familiar look and feel. It strongly reminds oneof the legacy Maestro GUI. That factoid alone stronglysupports the usability rules presented above.

TWS/WebAdmin does not require a specific version ofthe Java Runtime Environment. It is not limited tospecific hardware platforms. It does not requireinstalling and maintaining any extraneous software suchas a framework or special connectors. Pick a browser,any browser; you have connectivity.

TWS/WebAdmin provides a feature-rich user interfaceto all aspects of TWS. Each feature incorporates a subsetof the Usability Rules listed above. TWS/WebAdminprovides an intuitive interface for:

♦ Defining and maintaining all TWS schedulingobjects and their relationships using a familiar,intuitive interface.

♦ Viewing and managing all domains, workstations,job streams, jobs, prompts, resources and filedependencies in the Current Plan (the SymphonyFile) using a self-explanatory navigation system.

♦ Forecasting future Plans utilizing a sophisticatedcapability that offers a range of dates and powerfulreporting.

TWS/WebAdmin is ahighly portable, web-based applicationmaking TWS veryaccessible. If you havea device with a webbrowser, you haveaccess to TWSthroughTWS/WebAdmin.

For this test drive, Iam using Safari V1.3,the Macintosh OS Xbrowser. I also testedit using InternetExplorer V6.0 (onWindows XP) andGaleon V1.2 (on RedHat Linux).

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♦ Utilizing the Job Notes feature-accessible with oneclick-where instructions or on-call informationmay be maintained.

♦ Powerful reporting capability, including the optionof running and saving SQL queries.

♦ Accessing formatted and legible audit log files foreasy and quick review.

A Quick Look at TWS/WebAdminThis paper is not intended to be a tutorial. It is a firstlook to get a sense and feel for the product.

The home screen already illustrates the amount ofthought put into designing TWS/WebAdmin. On the leftside is a navigation bar for accessing TWS areas. Thehome page itself provides useful information about theserver, the current settings and statistics about the TWSnetwork.

Just from logging on, one can tell that the system is up(Batchman Running) and there are some problem jobs (#Abend).

TWS/WebAdmin Home Page Layout.

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Working with the DatabaseThe most complex task in job scheduling is to create anew jobstream. Creating a jobstream tests the productagainst the five rules discussed above. I did not read anydocumentation for TWS/WebAdmin (other than theinstall instruction) prior to exercising it for this paper.

An experienced scheduler can appreciate the orderlyflow of creating a new jobstream. A novice schedulercan appreciate the guidance that flow represents. Thefollowing screen shots illustrate the steps I took forcreating a new jobstream containing four jobs. To start, Iselected Jobstreams from the Navigation bar on thehome page.

Where is the Jobstream Going to Run?

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At What Time Should the Jobstream Run?

What is the Run Cycle of the Jobstream?

Selecting the Run Cycle for this exercise gives me theopportunity to do something I strongly discourage whenpresenting TWS in a training session. I have selected"Everyday" as the cycle and "Except Freedays" as the

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exception. (Freedays are defined as Saturday andSunday.) For the sake of clarity and brevity, I shouldhave just selected a Run Cycle of Weekdays with noexceptions.

That takes care of the mandatory Where and Whenrequirements for setting up my jobstream. Now I mustestablish the prerequisites for the jobstream by defining“what must happen before this jobstream can run.”

Any Other Jobstream-Level Dependencies?

My “requirements” do not have any jobstream-leveldependencies for this exercise, but having this screenpresented at this point in the jobstream definitionprocess is efficient and thoughtful. The tool is forcingme to think and fulfill my requirements in an orderly,top-down fashion. The aforementioned Rules 1 and 5apply here.

Since I have nothing to add as jobstream prerequisites,TWS/WebAdmin now takes me to the job level where Iidentify the actual tasks the jobstream will contain.

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TWS/WebAdmin rewards good naming conventions byallowing selection of multiple job names for inclusion inthe jobstream. That is a feature Schedulers willappreciate.

TWS/WebAdmin Allows Selecting Multiple Jobs.(See Rule 4)

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TestJob2 Is Made Dependent on TestJob1.

All dependencies for TestJob2 are established on thisone screen. There is nothing disjointed aboutestablishing job prerequisites. TESTJOB3 is then madedependent on TESTJOB2 in the same manner.TESTJOB4 has some additional dependencies.

Job4 Has a Time Dependency and…

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…Multiple Job Dependencies.

Once I have completed defining the jobstream byestablishing all the prerequisites for each job and savedthe new jobstream, I can perform a visual check of thejobstream to see what it looks like in the TWSscheduling language.

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Select the Jobstream and Click on DISPLAY toView…

...The Newly Crafted Jobstream.

Creating a new jobstream with TWS/WebAdmin issimple and straightforward. TWS/WebAdmin keeps thejobstream developer’s focus orderly and organized. Any

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Production Control Analyst worth their “You Want ItWhen?” poster will find both usability and utility inpointing their web browser to TWS/WebAdmin.

Working with the PlanWorking with the Plan through TWS/WebAdmin is noless rewarding. For the most part, working with the planmeans monitoring the jobs, correcting abnormal endings(abends) when possible, resolving other schedulingproblems when they occur, and escalating problemdetermination when necessary. (Or whatever those goodfolks really do 24/7!)

Again, I am only covering a few of the features - thosethat I feel are particularly impressive in the way theysupport the work Operators are trying to accomplish.

I have been to many, many shops and watched countlessOperators in my TWS-related travels. There is nostandard way Operators monitor TWS activity. Fact.

All Operators like to filter what they watch and they allare on the lookout for abend or job failure instances.Some Operators also monitor critical jobstreamexecution. Operators pay very limited attention tosuccessful job completion.

For the job monitoring exercise, I am setting two optionsfrom the Options screen. I am setting the Auto Refreshoption to 30 so that the Plan screens will automaticallyrefresh every 30 seconds for me. That mimics the waymost Operations folks monitor TWS activity. (Actually,most Operators feel that real time is a bit too slow fortheir needs.)

I am also anchoring the Action Buttons along the bottomof the screen for quick access to operations-relatedactivities. I’m willing to bet most Operators will alsochange the skin to 3-D!

TWS/WebAdminsupports the real workthat Operators aretrying to accomplish,making it easier,simpler and faster.

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TWS/WebAdmin Options.

Filtering is an extremely powerful aid to job monitoring.TWS/WebAdmin has a full complement of filters. Onereally useful filtering option is to reduce the clutter byeliminating all but the last iteration of those jobs that runevery few minutes throughout the day.

Setting the Filter to Short Mode.

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Job List from the Plan.

In the Job List we see some of the detailTWS/WebAdmin provides. The color coded Statusjumps out at you – white for pending, green for successand red for problems. The start time, estimated run timeand unmet dependencies are what the Operators want tosee and monitor. The fourth rule is at work here!

While filtering out the multitude of iterations of jobs,which already have run, reduces the list to some extent,it still does not provide the visibility that I think amonitor would need for successful job performance.

I can further reduce the clutter of displayed data byfiltering down to just the jobs that are executing and theproblem jobs. TWS/WebAdmin provides the capabilityto define any number of filtering combinations and tosave those definitions. TWS/WebAdmin will satisfyevery operator’s filtering desires and job executionmonitoring requirements.

Ultimately, usability isaccomplished byarchitecting a userinterface that fits withwhat the end user istrying to accomplish.

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Plan Jobs Filtered to Executing and Abend Job View.

One very thoughtful feature of TWS/WebAdmin isshowing the output of a job by clicking on the job namein the Plan’s job list. This comes in very handy whenthere is a problem needing immediate attention.

Clicking On Job Name Immediately Pops Up Job’sOutput.

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One TWS/WebAdmin feature that I feel has great utilityis the Job Notes feature. It is a handy addition to TWScapabilities in maintaining all sorts of information forjobs. There are separate sections for ContactInformation, for Recovery Instructions and for GeneralComments. This is a feature with unlimited utility.

Example of Job Notes.

There is one TWS/WebAdmin feature that I am sure willbe underappreciated and underutilized by the communityin spite of being both useful and powerful. That is theability to browse the TWS log file.

There are countless Schedulers and Operators workingwith TWS who are uncomfortable navigating in thecommand line oriented Unix environment or are noteven allowed to have direct access to the Unixenvironment. Yet their TWS master resides on a Unixserver.

The TWS log (located at maestrohome/stdlist/ date_TWSMERGE.log on a Unix master) contains all theactivity regarding TWS processing. TWS/WebAdminprovides direct access to the TWS log file from the GUI.

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As a consultant, I spend more time examining thecontents of the TWS log than looking at anything elsewhen I am a t a job site. As an example, for me the TWSlog is the simplest way to debug a Job Failed problem. Afailed job has no output because the operating systemhas rejected it for some reason. The log points to thereason for the rejection by the OS.

Failed Jobs Have No Output to Help Debug, But...

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…The TWS Log Has the Answer.

I am convinced that Operators, as a class, will absolutelylove using TWS/WebAdmin. TWS/WebAdmin has theutility Operators demand and the usability Operatorscrave. All five usability rules apply to working with theTWS Plan.

Supporting the AdministratorTWS/WebAdmin supports the TWS Administrator withconvenience and utility. I mentioned the TWS logearlier. When problems occur, it is the Administratorthat has to determine their origin and cure. The TWS logallows a Scheduler or Operator to support thisadministration task.

Maintaining and reviewing audit files is anotheradministration task. In their raw format audit files forboth the Plan and the Database are difficult to decipher.(OK, they are really impossible to decipher.) TWS/Web-Admin eliminates counting bytes and trying to delimitfields.

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As an example, assume an important jobstream wasmysteriously cancelled. Selecting the Plan Audit Logprovides the answer. The highlighted entry at the bottomof the list tells us user tullyk cancelled the jobstream.

TWS Plan Audit Log.

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Maintaining and compressing the TWS databases is animportant part of TWS administration. Any changemade to a scheduling object in the database grows thatobject’s database file until it is rebuilt.

TWS Database Before Rebuild.

An overwhelming number of clients I visit for the firsttime are not aware of the importance of compressing thedatabases on a regular basis. The Schedulers do noticethe degraded response when working with the database.TWS/WebAdmin informs the Administrator whenrebuilding a database is in order.

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Clicking on "Build All" Reclaims the Wasted Spacefor the Files.

Not all TWS shops need/want the added expense ofenterprise management software such as TivoliEnterprise Console (TEC) or BMC’s Patrol.TWS/WebAdmin includes an Event Monitoring option.Event Monitoring is set up through a configurationscreen where an Administrator selects which TWSevents should be monitored. The selected events can beviewed directly or tied to an alert.

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TWS Event Monitor

If there is one thing that gets riveting attention focusedon TWS, it is when TWS shuts down in the middle ofthe production day. The most common reason for theshutdown is a TWS message file filling to capacity.TWS uses message files to communicate between themaster and agent servers.

Message files do not overflow very often–usually onlywhen a server is taken out of service for an extendedperiod of time and jobs are still scheduled to run there orwhen a server has an abnormal amount of activity.

When a message file does overflow, TWS shuts downimmediately to prevent information loss. When thathappens, the responsible Administrator scurries for notesto remember how to resize the files.

TWS/WebAdmin provides the capability to bothmonitor and resize the message files.

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TWS Message Files.

TWS Administrators will revel in the time savingsTWS/WebAdmin provides. Providing a graphicalinterface for some of the administrative tasks is a noveland thoughtful advancement.

Working With ReportsTWS report capability has been a sore spot withOperations Managers since forever. The standard TWSreports have been and still are poorly formatted anddeemed not usable by everyone that has seen or tried tomake sense of them.

TWS/WebAdmin provides a set of general reports thatcan be tailored to a shop’s specific criteria. The reportset includes Job History and Job Detail Reports,Scheduling Object Cross Reference Reports, andScheduling Object Database Reports. Each of thosereports can be tailored to include exactly what data auser wants to see. TWS/WebAdmin stores everything init’s own database.

Just in case the provided reports are not sufficient,TWS/WebAdmin provides the capability to roll your

Good systems do notinterfere with, orimpede, efficient useby a skilled userhaving substantialexperience with thesystem.

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own SQL queries for reports. That seems like a usefulcapability so I tested it’s utility. I studied theTWS/WebAdmin tables and formulated what I thoughtwould be a useful report. I created a report of abendjobs.

It worked! I even saved the query. To my chagrin, Icould have created the identical report with just a fewappropriate clicks on the Job History Report screen!There are managers out there that can request somethingmore esoteric to be reported, I am sure!

If there is one report that I have heard managers ask forregularly, it is the statistical report for TWS processing.Be it for each day, week, month, year, or all of the above- managers want that statistical data. It does not surpriseto me to see that TWS/WebAdmin provides all that datawith ease.

A Day In the Life.

The clincher of the Reports usability for me personally,is the Forecasting Report. TWS/WebAdmin doesforecasting beyond (my) expectations.

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I install a forecasting report script at every client I visit.My script reports TWS Activity for a particular day.TWS/WebAdmin provides the capability to forecast ablock of days. That block can be a weekend, a week amonth, whatever. In all these years, I never considereddoing that. What a fabulous idea!

Production Planning Report Input Page.

Even for reporting, TWS/WebAdmin scores very highmarks. The Usability Rules apply here as well.

In SummaryTWS/WebAdmin is designed with the end user in mind.

TWS/WebAdmin is the solution for corporationscommitted to a productive environment for their TWSSchedulers, Operators and Administrators. Snappyresponse times for even the largest data loads and single-click information presentation provide quick problemresolution for critical path and mission criticalapplication related problems.

The included RDBMS allows extracting every nugget ofdata or statistical information a manager could desire.

TWS/WebAdminprovides a userinterface that fits withwhat the end user istrying to accomplish.

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Intuitive and familiar interfaces allow Schedulers toconfidently manage the corporation’s scheduling dataobjects, ensuring the correct data is processed at thecorrect time of the correct day, with timely alertsgenerated before serious problems occur.

Administrators are provided with all the information tokeep TWS “lean and mean” and avoid seriousconsequences like shut down. TWS/WebAdmin alsoprovides the auditing information to know who did whatto whom and when.

About SEGUS Inc.SEGUS Inc was founded in 1992 in Reston, Virginiaand is the exclusive distributor in North America for allof HORIZONT GmbH's products - includingTWS/WebAdmin.

Originally specializing only in products for and aroundIBM's mainframe job scheduling packages, SEGUS andHORIZONT have now entered the distributed arena andare also using their expertise to develop add-on productsfor other scheduling software.

For more information on SEGUS products, please go towww.segus.com or call 1-800-327-9650 and tell themTully sent you.