Job Group form

Administration System Job Groups Job Groups view Job Group form

A job group defines a group of nodes that can be used to run a background job, enabling you to leverage a group of nodes for a background job if one node is not available. You can configure a job group to assign jobs to the selected nodes randomly for expedience. After you configure your job groups you can use them to assign various background jobs, reporting jobs, EDI jobs, and other jobs to balance the load on the cluster and improve the performance of your N4 installation.

To add a job group:

1. Enter the Job Group Name.

2. Enter the Job Group Description.

3. For Load Balancing Scheme, select Assign jobs randomly within the group.

• Assign jobs randomly within the group: The job will randomly use any of the available nodes that are included in the list of nodes.

• Prefer Primary node to run if alive: When you select this option, the Backup Node field will appear. This option prefers the primary nodes for executing jobs as long as the primary nodes are up and running. If none of the primary nodes are up, then the Backup Node will be used for the job. You must select the node that will be Backup Node. Because they are only used if the primary nodes fail, backup nodes can be shared across job groups, reducing the total number of nodes need to provide highly available, multi-node job groups.

4. From the Nodes list, select the nodes that you want to include in the job group.

For N4 Automation Scheduler Job Groups:

• ASC Scheduler Job Groups: Assign enough nodes that provide a total of 1 core per two ASC blocks.

• C-ARMG Scheduler Job Group: Assign enough nodes that provide a total of 1 cores/C-ARMG block.

It is best practice to split your C-ARMG into small groups, for example one job group per block, with the C-ARMGs named within, such as CARMG_SCHEDULER A_B_C, CARMG_SCHEDULER D_E_F, and CARMG_SCHEDULER G_H_J_K.

• RGC Scheduler Job Group: Assign a set of nodes (at least two) not running other data- or process-intensive jobs such as EDI, the ASC Scheduler, or the AGV Scheduler. For failover purposes, the job group you set up for the RGC Scheduler must also include two or more nodes.

• HT Scheduler Job Groups: Assign one node/AGV pool, two AGV pools maximum.

• CHE Dispatcher Scheduler Job Group: Assign at least 2 nodes. The CHE Dispatcher Scheduler must always have its own job group.

If you are using an IP address to identify a node in your cluster, you need to update the job groups every time the IP address of a node in the job group changes.

5. Backup Node: Select a secondary node that will run the job if the primary nodes are down. This option appears when you select the “Prefer Primary node to run if alive” Load Balancing Scheme. Because they are only used if the primary nodes fail, backup nodes can be shared across job groups, reducing the total number of nodes need to provide highly available, multi-node job groups.

6. Click Save.

N4 displays a message reminding you to broadcast the changes to the job group to all the nodes in the cluster.

7. Click OK to close this warning.

8. After you have added all the job groups, select the Actions Broadcast Group Update option.

9. In the Nodes sync for Job Group Update form, select the Sync job schedulers for all the nodes option to push information about the new job group to the nodes on the job group.

10. Click OK to close this form.

11. Click Save.

12. Re-start any other affected background jobs you may have started previously, such as the Bento Server. If you're running N4 Automation, you must refresh the background jobs for the Problem Solutions. See To turn on or refresh background jobs for more information.

13. Monitor your background jobs to ensure they are all set up properly.

To do this, go to the Background Jobs view (on page 1) (Administration System Background Jobs) and review the Job Group Status column, to ensure that all nodes are up.

To delete a job group:

• If you are using N4 Automation, in order to delete a job group, you need to remove it from any existing Problem Solutions. Identify all of the Problem Solutions that use the job group you want to delete under Configuration Optimization Problem Solution. If the job group is being used by any Problem Solutions, do the following:

1. Create or identify an existing job group that you want to use instead of the one you want to delete.

2. For each Problem Solution that uses the job group you want to delete, remove the job group from field Job Group to Execute Job and apply the job group you want to replace it with.

3. Save the Problem Solution.

Refresh the background jobs. See To turn on or refresh background jobs for more information.

Job Group Columns