A Different Kind of Holiday Schedule: Workload Automation for Custom Date Patterns
Managing IT infrastructure is full of exceptions that are beyond your control – network latency, bad disks, power failures and human error. Fortunately, holiday batch scheduling is well within your control when you leverage centralized workload automation. Even in cases where different business units celebrate different sets of holidays, batch jobs can be configured to run predictably and reliably.
Custom Date Definitions
One method JAMS users employ is Special Date Definitions.
With a few clicks, you can define one or more custom calendars. They can be used to track any number of date specifications, from business holidays, to fiscal periods, to on-call schedules. Once a custom calendar is defined, it is available globally throughout JAMS and can be referenced in the definition of a batch job or a workflow.
Examples of holiday scheduling logic include:
- Run this job daily, except on US holidays.
- If this job is submitted on a UK holiday, hold it for 48 hours.
- If this job fails on a holiday, send a notification to our support team.
The permutations and combinations of scheduling logic are virtually endless. With a little planning, frenzied pre-holiday task scheduling can be eliminated.
Programmatic Holiday Definitions?
For organizations requiring an even greater degree of customization, including the ability to define holidays based on data maintained by another entity, JAMS includes a sample script (PowerShell) to add, delete and rename dates programmatically.