[Info-vax] Workload manager for VMS, Should it come with one? (or at least a Scheduler?)

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax [mailto:info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com] On Behalf Of IanD
> via Info-vax
> Sent: July 29, 2017 8:34 AM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: IanD <iloveopenvms at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Info-vax] Workload manager for VMS, Should it come with
> one? (or at least a Scheduler?)
> 
> In the stone age we started with the VMS batch subsystem
> 

Its not a stone age concept. Batch files are an integral component of
any modern OS offering.

Most enterprise application platforms have all sorts of work that
requires a reliable and solid batch subsystem. As an example, customized
billing reports (past resource usage, usage this month etc) are all done
with batch jobs.

> Then evolved to scheduler tools, such as CA scheduler and DEC
scheduler
> 

No - schedulers are tools that automate the "scheduling" of batch jobs.

Two different components.

> The rest of the world has moved on to workload management systems
> now, even enterprise and across systems ones too
> 

Job schedulers (as they are usually called) have been around since the
70's (60's?).

> Then in VMS land we went backwards, DEC scheduler stopped running
> on newer versions of VMS probably some 10 years ago
> 

DEC Scheduler was sold to CA, but is still an active (and maintained)
product offering:
http://bit.ly/2tSCdtK

> Having to roll your own scheduler on VMS one is painful and often
> requires lots of DCL wrapper code just to get simplistic management
> happening. Relying upon an external scheduler like JAMS on another
> platform has issues too if one wants to go off the platform and onto
> another reservation!
> 

Which is why if one needs a commercial product above and beyond what a
native platform offers, one goes out and buys one.

Same thing can be stated for Windows and Linux platforms.

> It seems to me a fairly important aspect of an OS to have a native
reliable
> scheduler system (a workload management would of course be even
> better) but in VMS land we at still at the evolution stage of pre-warp
> technology, i.e. batch jobs
> 

Again, job schedulers and batch subsystems are two different components.

> The batch job entries are individualistic in nature, they are not
associated
> with other entries and/or cannot be rolled up into separate classes
etc
> making their management even more painful.
> 
> Should an OS like VMS come with a workload management system or at
> least a scheduler system that supports inter job dependencies and
other
> such goodies?
> 

You are asking if VSI should develop a native offering that would
replace a commercial product offering. ISV's really , really hate this.

> Is the VMS vision to evolve to a system that will support workload
> management naively under some type of framework or are we distend
> to forever fight the job enemy with just the batch queue bow and
> arrow?

Most Customers these days do not want a platform specific job scheduler.


They want an enterprise job scheduler that supports multiple platforms.

Some examples of job schedulers that support OpenVMS:

EnterpriseSCHEDULE
<http://www.i-s-e.com/EnterpriseSCHEDULE/index.html>

JAMS Enterprise Scheduler
<http://www.jamsscheduler.com/platforms/openvms/>

Active Batch + OpenVMS products
<https://www.advsyscon.com/en-us/products.aspx> 

CA Job Scheduler for OpenVMS
<http://bit.ly/2tSCdtK>

What would be helpful is if VSI were to continue to contact 3rd party
products to ensure they continue their support for OpenVMS.

Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com