Cross-Platform Workload Automation: How to Efficiently Maintain Mainframe Scheduler Integrations
Mainframes have supported the growth of the biggest and most successful enterprises around the globe for over half a century. During this period, businesses’ expectations regarding the delivery of IT services have consistently increased, and mainframes have always been up to the task of meeting those expectations.
Today’s mainframes no longer exist in isolation, and continue to play a crucial role in organizations’ highly complex hybrid environments. They integrate very well with other platforms, and the ability to operate in a cross-platform environment is naturally reflected in mainframe software.
Mainframe schedulers play a key role in cross-platform workload management. Broadcom’s flagship mainframe scheduling solutions, ESP Workload Automation Intelligence and CA 7 Workload Automation Intelligence, participate in cross-platform scheduling via Workload Automation System Agents.
Workload Automation System Agents
System agents, which enable mainframe schedulers to participate in cross-platform scheduling, are one of the key integration components of Broadcom’s workload automation solutions that allow the schedulers to automate, monitor, and manage workload across a range of platforms. To run a workload on a particular system, you install a Workload Automation System Agent on that system. If your workload must run on a UNIX computer, for example, you can install and configure the Workload Automation System Agent for UNIX. The agent can run UNIX scripts, execute UNIX commands, transfer files using FTP, monitor file activity on the agent’s computer, and perform many other tasks.
You can extend agent functionality by enabling one or more business-specific agents (also called “plug-ins”) during agent installation. These plug-ins extend integration to enterprise applications from other vendors such as SAP, PeopleSoft, and Oracle. For example, if you have an Oracle relational database, you can install Workload Automation Agent for Databases to query and monitor that database. Many other plugins are available–and these are not limited to on-premises applications.
If you have a need to schedule and control workload in the cloud, we have plug-ins to aid you there as well–with more being created regularly to ensure the various needs of enterprises are satisfied. Stay tuned to learn more in future articles!
Issues With Viewing and Maintaining Workload Automation System Agents
Although the Workload Automation System Agents are functionally rich and already offer a wide range of benefits, they are continuously undergoing additional development. Everything evolves, and business requirements are changing. The agent framework is continuously being enhanced, and the overall IT area is very dynamic. Broadcom continues to adapt, improve, and secure our products proactively based on these evolving needs. Hence, development teams regularly release updated versions of Workload Automation System Agents to provide new capabilities and respond to any potential vulnerabilities.
Maintaining software across end-to-end enterprise environments has never been an easy task. Of course, when we are only dealing with a handful of installed Workload Automation System Agents–this isn’t a big deal. But it’s not uncommon that our large enterprise customers are running thousands and even tens of thousands of system agents. In an environment of this scale, even simple tasks like understanding which of the Workload Automation System Agents are used by instances of ESP and CA 7 schedulers may become tricky.
Building a comprehensive view of information about the hostnames used, ports, or versions of the Workload Automation System Agent typically requires some patience or in-house build tools. But this is just a start. What if there was a need to get System Agent log files? Change System Agent configurations, i.e., to enable additional plug-ins? Or even upgrade System Agents? A centralized means for maintaining system agents would help here.
Delays Associated with Cross-Team and Cross-Department Dependencies
Additionally, one of the biggest challenges of cross-platform environments is that they are not managed and maintained by a single team–typically not even a single department–and in the worst case, management and maintenance could be outsourced to an external organization, like a service provider. The need to retrieve System Agent log files may then result in the involvement of many people and roles with different responsibilities and expertise.
Very similar challenges can pop up when changing the Workload Automation System Agents’ parameters or upgrading the agents. The equation here is relatively simple: the more people and teams are involved in the process, the more time it will take to complete the given task. And the more complex your environment is, the more people are involved. That’s why centralization is so important.
Centralization and Accessibility as the Answer
Having the right tools in your hand can make a difference. Our development teams strive to provide solutions that increase effectiveness and remove obstacles on the way to getting things done. In this specific case, we are talking about ensuring that Workload Automation System Agents (as the crucial part of the scheduling environment) are ready to retrieve the instructions from the scheduler engine, process the jobs, and inform the scheduler of the results. All of this, with uncompromised security. To ensure smooth operations, you must understand the System Agents and their attributes while ensuring the agents are at their latest version.
That’s why we introduced Workload Automation Agent Manager, a tool that gives:
1) Visibility into deployed Workload Automation System Agents that are defined in instances of ESP or CA 7 schedulers
2) Capabilities needed to report on the state of the deployed Workload Automation System Agents, including their details and configurations
3) Possibility to access Workload Automation System Agent log files without a need to have direct access to the machine where the System Agent is deployed
4) Shortcut to adjusting the agent configuration, like enabling plug-ins or changing the log level, again without a need to request access to the machine where the System Agent is deployed
5) Workload Automation Agent Manager upgrade feature by which you can stage your System Agents for upgrade and initiate it from a single-stop solution
All of these features were delivered with release 1.0.0 on April 17, 2023, but additional minor features are available as well.
How Does Workload Automation Agent Manager Work?
Agent Manager appears as the web application to the end user, so the interactions are done via a modern web user interface. In the backend, Agent Manager Server is running in the z/OS UNIX System Services. The Agent Manager Server communicates with CA 7 and ESP schedulers via their REST APIs. The messages to Workload Automation System Agents deployed on Windows or UNIX servers are then sent from the schedulers.
There is no direct communication between the Agent Manager Server and deployed System Agents. Hence, the already existing secured communication channels are leveraged. There is only one Agent Manager Server needed, to which multiple ESP or CA 7 Rest APIs can be connected. The high-level architecture is depicted in the following figure.
This architecture enables the central administration of the Workload Automation System Agents associated with multiple instances of ESP Workload Automation and/or CA 7 Workload Automation schedulers from a one-stop web user interface. All of this is built on uncompromised z/OS built-in security.
Try Workload Automation Agent Manager Now!
The best way to get familiar with all the Workload Automation Agent Manager functionality is, of course, a hands-on experience in your environment. If you are an ESP Workload Automation Intelligence or CA 7 Workload Automation Intelligence customer, Workload Automation Agent Manager is available for download at support.broadcom.com at no additional charge!
We have also introduced the possibility of trying the tool in a Broadcom-hosted environment, hosted on Broadcom mainframes, with corresponding demo scheduler instances and System Agents. This means you can log in, try all the features, and evaluate if Agent Manager will bring value to your shop. To get access, please reach out to me (daniel.remta@broadcom.com). You will be provided with detailed instructions and credentials.
Improving Monitoring and Maintenance
Workload Automation Agent Manager offers an improved way of monitoring and maintenance of Workload Automation System Agents that are leveraged in your cross-platform scheduling ecosystem from a modern single-stop web user interface. It reduces the time required to perform System Agent administration and upgrades and removes cross-role/department/business unit dependencies. Install Agent Manager today; I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what the tool offers!
