UC4v12 Guidelines

UC4v12: C:\IOC\Automic\UserInterface\bin\UCDJ.EXE

Description: UC4 is a job scheduling system capable of coordinating information flows across many systems capable of internet connectivity.

PCA Email (updated 1/17/2024): itap-pcbus@purdue.edu, itap-pcstu@purdue.edu

Monitoring Instructions:

The IOC will take action and contact Productions Control Analysts (PCA) when the following scenarios occur:

1. General Job Failure
2. File Transfer Failure (FT)
3. Pop Up Alerts

Ignore:

Abends with objects listed with status of STOP ( Status STOP - Automatic processing has been stopped)

General Job Failure:

During a General Job Failure you must contact Production Control within 30 minutes.

• Email 08:00-17:00 M-F, non-holiday workdays.
• Call PCA otherwise. PH: 765-496-0287. If no response from on-call, please continue to call every 30 minutes. 
• If no response after three calls, contact the group manager: Craig Fee at 765-412-9972. 
• You will be able to identify a General Job Failure when an Abend is in the "Other Abends" only.

• Abends showing with return code = "0222" can be ignored. It will clear on it's own. 

File Transfer Failure:

• Restart once
• If failure continues, follow General Job Failure instructions above.
• You will be able to identify a FT Failure by looking at the name of the file and at the end you will see "FT".
• Do not restart File Transfer abends that have the status ended_empty. 

UC4 Abend Logging

How to Identify related Abends: It is important to Accurately identify abends for the PCA, below can help you do just that.

Two Objects showing (two related entries in UC4)

1. You can identify the Object and Parent by looking at the RunID and Parent fields in the UC4 screen.
2. The Object will have a unique RunID and will have a matching Parent number to the RunID of the actual Parent abend. See the example below:

One Object Showing (RunID and Parent #)

1.   Sometimes you will have just the Object appear in UC4. You can still ID the Parent by right clicking the object> Monitor Parent.
2.   You can copy the name of the parent from this screen. Please see the below screenshots.

Single Object Showing (Only RunID)

1. At times you will see just an object with its RunID.

1. Right Click > Details and copy the Object and paste it in the UC4 Form as both the Object and Parent.

UC4 - Release:

From time to time jobs will be placed into UC4 with a held status. A PCA will inform the group via e-mail with necessary details like estimated release time, who will request the release, etc. All jobs of this nature should appear in the "Held Jobs" activity window.

1. Receive details from PCA regarding manual release job
2. Get order to release the job
3. Right click the held job, choose Modify Task > Release Manually
4. Select Yes when the Operations Manager asks if the user wants to perform this action
5. Send follow up email to the group that the job belongs to. 

ALEKS Process/UC4 Popups:

This is another process that will have a popup in the UC4 screen.

1. Please call the PCA during non-business hours (765-496-0287) and any other instructions that the popup has in the body of the message. (Per PCA as of 11/3/23, any popup specifically requesting to contact 765-496-0287 can now be emailed during business hours regardless of popup instructions. Other popups which request to contact a different number, like "PDW Watchdog has encountered an error" asks to call 765-494-7399, should still be called as normal unless those Admins say otherwise. Whether during business hours or non-business hours, please do not acknowledge the popups until someone has confirmed they are aware of the issue, an issue is ongoing, and/or we are already ignoring it.)
   
   

Agent Down:

To see if an agent is down in UC4 please follow the below steps:

1. Look at the Activities: Monitored Processes Screen.
2. If you see any of the below entries call PCA. 60287

**If you are unsure please call the number above, better to call than not**

Production Control has advised us the only information they need regarding UC4 abends are the "Object" (job name), "Abend/Error Code" and time of the abend. A log entry is not required for file transfers that complete successfully. Abends which require a call to the PCAs will all be entered into the log.

To enter a UC4 abend you select "UC4 Abend" from the drop down menu for "Group" on the Communication Log .  That will open up a box for the pertinent information regarding the abend to be entered.  You can enter information as follows:

"New/Existing:" - You can leave this at default of "New"

"Parent Jobplan" - You can just enter the Object (Job) that has abended

"Object" - Enter the Object (Job) that has abended

"Executor" - No entry needed anymore

"Abend/Error code" - Enter the code from the drop down box

"Job Plan Blocked?" - No entry needed anymore

"E-mail PCA?" - Always leave defaulted to "Yes"

Now you populate the remainder of the fields that are static to the IOC Communication Log page as follows:

"Group Contact:" - No entry needed anymore if just submitting the job failure via email.  If you are calling the PCA to report the abend you would enter the name of the PCA if you talk to one or receive a voicemail with a specific name assigned.

"Method:" - From the drop down box select the method by which the PCAs have been contacted. Generally "Sent e-mail" or "Outgoing call".

"Phone Number/Email Address" - No entry needed anymore if just submitting the abend via email.  If you are calling the PCA to report the abend you would enter the phone number you called

"Status" - From the drop down box select "Group Notified"

"Description" - You can just enter "Sent e-mail"

Launching Application:

UC4v12 is online. Settings below:
Connection=UC4v12_PRD
Client=10
Name=IOCOPS
Department=IOC (edited)

In some instances either when a reimage happens or a new version ofUC4 is installed we will need to Create the different Abend and monitoring windows. Below are the different types of windows we will need to set up:

• Messages

• File Transfers

• Other Abends

• Held Abends

• Monitored Processes

Messages:

• Select View

• Select Messages.

• Move on to other windows.

File Transfer Abends:

• Open the View menu.

• Select Activities.

• Select List View, clicking on the Objects tab.

• Within Objects click Unselect All, then click File Transfer.

• Rename the window "Abended Transfers" at the title bar. 

• Select the Status tab.

• Uncheck the following top level statuses: ANY_OK, WAITING, ACTIVE

• Expand the ANY_OK section and select ENDED_EMPTY- nothing found.

• Click OK, opening the newly titled "Abended Transfers" window.

• Right-click inside this window, scroll to the View heading in the window, and uncheck the "Hierarchical" option if checked. This will ensure that abends will display the affected job, and not its top level parent.

Other Abends:

• Open the View menu.

• Select Activities.

• Uncheck FileTransfers.

• Rename the title "Other Abends"

• Select the Status tab

• Uncheck the following top level statuses: ANY_OK, WAITING, ACTIVE

• Click OK, opening the newly titled "Other Abends" window.

• Right-click inside this window, scroll to the View heading in the window, and uncheck the "Hierarchical" option if checked. This will ensure that abends will display the affected job, and not its top level parent.

Held Jobs

• Open the View menu.

• Select Activities

• Rename the box "Held Jobs"

• Make sure all objects reman checked.

• Select the Status tab.

• Uncheck all, and expand the Waiting category.

• Within the Waiting category, click "Waiting for manual release"

• Click "OK" which will open the newly retitled window.

• Right-click inside this window, scroll to the View heading in the window, and uncheck the "Hierarchical" option if checked. This will ensure that abends will display the affected job, and not its top level parent.

• Send email to PCA after Job has been released.

Monitored Objects

• Open the View menu.

• Select Activities.

• Rename the window "Monitored Processes"

• From there, pick List view, and click the Objects tab.

• Make sure that only Cockpit, Notification and Schedule are selected.

• Click OK and a new Activities window will open.

• Right-click inside this window, scroll to the View heading in the window, and uncheck the "Hierarchical" option if checked. This will ensure that abends will display the affected job, and not its top level parent

Saving Setup 

• Click Options

• Select Save window settings now.

If you have followed the above instructions your UC4 application will look like the below Screenshot:

Oracle Patching

Sometimes there is scheduled maintenance that affects UC4. The most common type is Oracle patching, usually scheduled once a month on a Saturday evening. The RFC name will typically contain "Student Systems and BI Warehouses Oracle Quarterly Patching." This maintenance may cause multiple PRD_ESA, PRD_REG, and PRD_DLS abends and/or popups, including "The ALEKS process has been delayed." Abend screenshots are below. Any abends or popups of these types may be emailed and then ignored until the end of the maintenance window.

UC4 Terminology

Abend - An abend is a failed job or process. (ABnormal ENDing)

Agent - A server, virtual machine, or other device which allows the execution of a job, file transfer, system event, etc.formerly an Executor.

AgentGroup - A collection of Agents of the same type. Example- all machines running RedHat Linux of the same version. Formerly known as HostGroup.

Activities Window - This window displays any number of UC4 items depending on its configuration.

(UC4) Administrator - UC4 admins at Purdue are Production Control Analysts. They interface with DBAs, programmers, and other staff to produce the required jobs, scripts and plans to coordinate processing.

Event - three types, time, file system and console. Events are triggered when the conditions of the three types are fulfilled. Commonly seen as ‘sleeping' in the Activities window until triggered.

File Transfer - aka FT, although not technically a job per UC4 documentation, it is referred to as such internally. UC4 File transfers can almost always be restarted after failure.

Group - Generally seen by operators when large batches of things like say file transfers are running. A group can be executed by a ProcessFlow. In the event of the failure of a file transfer  handling a group, restart the job without a filename in parentheses.

Job - A process running on UC4 which coordinates the activities of production or development processing.

Notification - An object that generally creates a pop-up message informing the UC4 operator of a specific action to take; or of the degraded status of a UC4 item like an Agent. Suppressed Notification messages may be reactivated by clicking the icon resembling an envelope, found in the upper left hand corner. This process was formerly known as CallOperator.

ProcessFlows - A series of jobs which run in sequence to achieve an overall goal. Each job plan has a defined sequence which it follows, and is displayed visually as a flow chart moving from left to right. This was formerly known as a JobPlan.

SAP Event - a trigger within UC4 to control SAP background processing. System events are automatically triggered and defined by SAP, whereas User Events are triggered externally based entirely on user definition.

Schedule - This is an executable object that is essentially a list of tasks, start times, etc. Think of it as the UC4 version of mainframe production processing.

Script - An internal UC4 resource written to define internal (UC4 native) instructions.

User - person interfacing with UC4.

UserInterface - The interface allowing users to interact with UC4. This was formerly known as the client, and it is capable of monitoring and controlling tasks.