Supported agents

Extended agents extend the static scheduling capability. They are logical workstations related to an access method hosted by a physical HCL Workload Automation workstation (not another extended agent). More than one extended agent workstation can be hosted by the same HCL Workload Automation workstation and rely on the same access method. The extended agent is defined in a standard HCL Workload Automation workstation definition, which gives the extended agent a name and identifies the access method. The access method is a program that is run by the hosting workstation whenever HCL Workload Automation submits a job to an external system.

Jobs are defined for an extended agent in the same manner as for other HCL Workload Automation workstations, except for the job attributes that depend on the external system or application.

To launch and monitor a job on an extended agent, the host runs the access method, passing it job details as command line options. The access method communicates with the external system to launch the job and returns the status of the job. To launch a job in an external environment, HCL Workload Automation runs the extended agent access method providing it with the extended agent workstation name and information about the job. The method looks at the corresponding file named XANAME_accessmethod.opts (where XANAME is the name of the extended agent workstation) to determine which external environment instance it will connect to. The access method can then launch jobs on that instance and monitor them through completion, writing job progress and status information in the standard list file of the job.

A physical workstation can host a maximum of 255 extended agents.

Extended agents can also be used to run jobs in an end-to-end environment, where their scheduling and monitoring tasks are performed by a IBM Workload Scheduler for z/OS controller.

To run access methods on external applications using dynamic agents, you define a job of type Access Method. The access method communicates with the external system to launch the job and returns the status of the job. The method looks at the corresponding file named optionsfile_accessmethod.opts (where optionsfile is the configuration file that depends on the selected access method). The dynamic agent and the IBM Workload Scheduler for z/OS agent can have more than one .opts associated file to determine which external environment instance to connect to. The access method can launch jobs on that instance and monitor them through completion, writing job progress and status information in the standard list file of the job.