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SmartBatch provides an affordable, best-of-breed, integrated solution for job scheduling and management. With ease, jobs can be logically organized and executed using the simplest or most complex user defined schedules. Jobs can also be configured such that errors are recovered/logged and "on-call" operators are notified of events via email, text message or pager. SmartBatch can assist you in managing programs, .bat files, and various scripts scattered across your systems by acting as a repository. SmartBatch with its clean design and impressive graphical user interface, is simple for all users. And, with advanced features like a .NET programmatic interface for even the most technical programmer, it proves to be both sophisticated and flexible. SmartBatch can support the simplest processing, or the most complicated. Standard features include: dependencies, parameters, scheduling/calendaring, reports, notification, Windows integrated security and much more. Three editions of SmartBatch are offered: the Lite Edition, Standard Edition and the Enterprise Edition. The Lite Edition offers entry level pricing while providing a complete and robust solution. The Standard Edition meets the need of most organizations that need a single computer solution. The Enterprise Edition includes all the functionality of the Standard Edition, but is designed specifically as an enterprise solution providing the ability to distribute processing to any number of comptuers.. Use the links to the left to get more detailed information on each of the SmartBatch product editions. Scalable Distributed ProcessingThe Enterprise Edition provides a scalable, distributed, load-balanced, fault-tolerant solution with the use of Remote Agents. With the Enterprise Edition, jobs can be executed to run on any Windows system in the network, but centrally controlled from one Executive Server. The Executive Server coordinates the activity of Remote Agents depending on the configuration. The Enterprise Edition allows for the use of Application and Computer Groups. Application Groups provide the ability to separate application processing. Computer Groups provide the ability to distribute processing amongst any number of computers running a SmartBatch Remote Agent. |
| End User Scheduling |
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SmartBatch provides a web forms based end user interface. This allows the nontechnical users the ability to submit jobs when needed. The browser based user interface shows them only the jobs they are authorized to run. Of course they can see the status and history for their jobs. SmartBatch takes care of the rest. |
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Scalability, Distributed Processing, Load-balancing and Fault-tolerance |
The Enterprise Edition allows Operations (an Operation is any script or
program you want to run), Steps, and Jobs to be scheduled and executed
on any Windows computer in your network centrally controlled from one
Executive Server. Each Operation can specify the name of the
computer or name of a Computer Group where the Operation should
execute. When the Executive Server processes the Operation, it contacts
the specified computer and send the request to that computer. If a
Computer Group is specified, the Executive Server will determine which
computer or computers should process the Operation. The SmartBatch
Remote Agent is sent the request to process the Operation via a message
queue. The Remote Agent monitors the Operation for completion and
notifies the Executive Server indicating the success or failure. If
either the Executive Server or Remote Agent becomes unavailable after
the request has been sent to the message queue, the request will be
processed when the computer becomes available. |
| Diagram Views |
Sophisticated environments need sophisticated tools to help manage the
relations amongst objects. A Diagram View of your object makes it
easier to configure and manage the simplest to the most complex
environments. The ability to display a Diagram View of Operations,
Steps and Jobs along with their associated objects is provided. In
addition the ability to create a Diagram View of File Watch, File
Existence and Object-To-Object dependencies is included. |
| Application Groups |
Application Groups provide a way to separate processing into a named
group. This provides for better manageability of your processing
especially in large configurations where the number of objects can be in
the hundreds or thousands. |
| Computer Groups |
A Computer Group is a set of computers that are assigned a type. Three
types of Computer Groups are available that help distribute processing
in different ways. Each computer in a Computer Group must have a
SmartBatch Remote Agent installed. The Executive Server will send
requests to computer in a Computer Group based on the Computer Group
type, processing resources of the computers and availability of the
computer. If a computer in a Round Robin or Application Grid Computer
Group is not available another available computer in the Computer Group
will be selected. The All computer Group provides the ability to setup
an Operation one time and have it execute on many computers
simultaneously. |
| Support for Major Database Products |
While SmartBatch
is not dependent on a specific database product, the Enterprise Edition
allows the SmartBatch database
to be placed on SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and MySQL. The Standard Edition
can use the desktop version (Express Editions of these database
products). |
| Custom Programmatic Interface | The Enterprise Edition also offers an extensible .NET API that will enable users to extend the processing of the Executive Server. For example, status messages can be sent to network management systems such as Computer Associates' Unicenter or IBM's Tivoli. |
| Free Edition | All of the features listed below are available in the Free, Lite and Standard Editions of SmartBatch. The Free Edition has the same features as the Standard Edition however the Free Edition is limited to 20 Operations. An Operation is any program or script you want to automate. |
| Lite Edition | All of the features listed below are available in the Lite and Standard Editions of SmartBatch. The Lite Edition has the same features as the Standard Edition. The Lite Edition is a low cost way to automate up to 50 Operations. |
| Flexible Scheduling | Operations, Steps, and Jobs can be scheduled to execute: immediately, on specific dates calendar, every "n" minutes, every day, every week, or every month. Exception dates and "extra" dates that a process should or should not run are also supported. |
| Error Detection and Recovery | Errors can be detected by exit codes, run threshold periods, and/or key word found in user specified application log files. The matching used to indicate success or failure can be any regular expression. Regular expression support is provided by SmartBatch through the .NET framework. |
| Reliable Notification | On-call operators can be notified by Email, text message, pager, etc. of start, success, and failure events. Notification messages are formatted as either regular text or html. |
| Operators | Any number of operators along with their available hours can be configured for proper notification. |
| Hierarchical Organization | To support related processing and complex environments, Operations can be logically grouped into Steps and Steps into Jobs. |
| Sequencing | Operations, Steps, and Jobs can be executed in a specified order. |
| Dependencies | Dependencies can be configured to ensure that processing only occurs when necessary conditions are met (e.g. file exists) or left unsatisfied (e.g. program failed to complete). |
| Object to Object Dependencies | An Operation can be dependent on another Operation simply by putting both Operations into a Step. The Operations will be executed in the order in which they are configured in the Step. This same sequencing is supported for Steps in a Job. Further, any object (Operation, Step or Job) can be dependent on any other object (Operation, Step or Job). |
| Events | Events such as a file being created or change to a file attributed can trigger the start of an Operation, Step or Job. |
| History Chart | History information can be charted to get a graphical view of processing. |
| Schedule Resource View | Determining what days and time your scheduled activity occurs is much easier with a the Schedule Resource View. This shows a graphical layout of your objects, their schedules and run times. |
| Parameters | Parameters are supported so that users can properly manage information that may change such as filenames and paths. |
| NET programmatic interface | Technical users can take advantage of the .NET programmatic interface (API) with SmartBatch. For example, they can use the API to schedule an object in SmartBatch from their application. |
| Windows Service Capability | The Executive Server is installed under Windows as a Windows Service allowing scheduling and notification to occur without the need for a user to be logged onto the system. Users may modify the configuration so that they run in manual mode. |
| Windows User Interface and Web User Interface | SmartBatch supports a clean, straightforward GUI using the latest UI Windows forms design. A Web browser user interface is also available for monitoring and controlling the environment. |
| Application Independent | SmartBatch is not specific to any application. |
| Database Independent | SmartBatch is not dependent on a specific database management system. SmartBatch uses a Microsoft Access or SQL Server for storing its configuration information. Your applications can use any database managment system without any conflicts with SmartBatch. The Standard Edition of SmartBatch can use MS Access or the Express Editions of the database products. The Enterprise Edition of SmartBatch is required to use other database editions (e.g., SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 or Oracle 10g). The Lite and Free Editions of SmartBatch can only use the MS Access database. |
| Security | Windows integrated security has been implemented to provide a secure solution using concepts you are already familiar with. SmartBatch provides for role based security based on a set of Windows roles/groups that are created when the product is installed. |
| Status | Status is provided to determine what activity is occurring at any point in time. |
| History | Activity can be written to the SmartBatch history, the Windows Event Log, or both. |
| Runbook | Users can enter information and instructions about processing for other operators to use and maintain the environment. |
The Remote Agent responds to the requests it
receives via a message queue and responds to the Executive Server via a message
queue. All processing done by a Remote Agent is based on requests from the
Executive Server.
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SmartBatch