Administrator's Guide


Tailoring Schedules

To control more precisely when and how your schedules run, you can specify values for schedule parameters instead of accepting the defaults when you define or update schedules.

Schedule name
All schedules must have a unique name, which can be up to 30 characters.

Initial start date, time, and day
You can specify a past date, the current date, or a future date for the initial start date for a schedule with the STARTDATE parameter.

You can specify a start time, such as 6 p.m. with the STARTTIME parameter.

You can also specify the day of the week on which the startup window begins with the DAYOFWEEK parameter. If the start date and start time fall on a day that does not correspond to your value for the day of the week, the start date and time are shifted forward in 24-hour increments until the day of the week is satisfied.

If you select a value for the day of the week other than ANY, then depending on the values for PERIOD and PERUNITS, schedules may not be processed when you expect. Use the QUERY EVENT command to project when schedules will be processed to ensure that you achieve the desired result.

Duration of a startup window
You can specify the duration of a startup window, such as 12 hours, with the DURATION and DURUNITS parameters. The server must start the scheduled service within the specified duration but does not necessarily complete it within that period of time. If the schedule needs to be retried for any reason, the retry attempt must begin before the startup window elapses or the operation does not restart.

Make the window duration long enough so that all client nodes scheduled for that window have a chance to start the operation. You may have to set the window to a longer period if the number of client nodes processing the schedule is greater than the number of available scheduled sessions.

If the schedule does not start during the startup window, the server records this as a missed event in the database. To identify any schedules that may have been missed, you can get an exception report from the server for events. For more information, see "Querying Event Records".

How often to run the scheduled service
You can set the schedule frequency based on a period of hours, days, weeks, months, or years with the PERIOD and PERUNITS parameters. To have weekly backups, for example, set the period to one week with PERIOD=1 and PERUNITS=WEEKS.

Expiration date
You can specify an expiration date for a schedule with the EXPIRATION parameter if the services it initiates are required for only a specific period of time. If you set an expiration date, the schedule is not used after that date, but it still exists. You must delete the schedule to remove it from the database.

Priority
You can assign a priority to schedules with the PRIORITY parameter. For example, if you define two schedules for one client node, and they have the same startup window, the server runs the schedule with the highest priority first. A schedule with a priority of 1 is started before a schedule with a priority of 3.

Domain name
A client schedule belongs to a policy domain. Only clients in that domain can use the schedule.

Type of action
The following actions are possible:

Restrictions:Not all clients can run all scheduled operations, even though ADSM allows you to define the schedule on the server and associate it with the client. For example, a Windows 3.1 client cannot run a schedule when the action is to restore or retrieve files, issue a command, or run an executable script. A Macintosh client cannot run a schedule when the action is to restore or retrieve files, or run an executable script.

Which files or commands to process
For incremental backup operations, you can specify which file spaces to process with the OBJECTS parameter, or allow the server to perform the backup based on the default client domain specified in the client user options file. Users can specify a default client domain by using the DOMAIN option in the client user options file. For information about specifying the DOMAIN option, refer to ADSM Using the Backup-Archive Client for the appropriate client.

For selective backup, archive, restore, and retrieve operations, you must specify the files to process. You can use wildcard characters to select multiple files. The file spaces and file names must follow the naming conventions of the client node. Therefore, you may need to define different schedules for different platforms.

If you are scheduling a command, you must specify the entire command.

If you are scheduling the running of an executable script, you must specify the executable script file name.

Client options
You can specify options that are supplied to the DSMC command when the schedule is processed. You can specify most options from the client's option file. For more information, refer to the appropriate client manual.

When applicable, these options override the options specified by a client node after it has successfully contacted the server.

Do not include the following options because they have no effect on the execution of the scheduled command:

To help you decide which client options and which file names or file spaces to specify when defining or updating a schedule, you can try them out during an unscheduled operation from the client node. For information about client options, refer to ADSM Using the Backup-Archive Client for the appropriate client.

Example: Defining a New Client Schedule

You can define a new schedule for backing up or archiving client nodes in a specified policy domain. When you define a schedule, you assign it to a specific policy domain. You can define more than one schedule for each policy domain.

To define a schedule for incremental backups for clients in the ENGPOLDOM policy domain, enter:

define schedule engpoldom engweekly action=incremental
period=1 perunits=weeks

This command sets the frequency for schedule ENGWEEKLY to one week. This frequency for scheduled incremental backups matches the backup copy group frequency of the management class in the STANDARD policy set of the ENGPOLDOM policy domain.

Example: Updating an Existing Client Schedule

You can update an existing client schedule for backing up or archiving client nodes in a specified policy domain.

To update the ENGWEEKLY client schedule, enter:

update schedule engpoldom engweekly period=5 perunits=days

The ENGWEEKLY schedule is updated so that the incremental backup period is now every five days.


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