How HCL Workload Automation manages time zones

While performing plan management activities, HCL Workload Automation converts the value set for the time zones into object definitions. The conversions are applied in this order:

1. When the job stream instances are added to the preproduction plan, the time zone set in the job stream definitions is converted into the GMT time zone and then the external follows dependencies are resolved.
2. When the production plan is created or extended, the job stream instances are assigned to workstations where the instance is scheduled to run and the time zone is converted from GMT into the time zone set in the target workstation definition.

This is why if you use the conman showsched or conman showjobs commands to see the information about scheduled jobs and job streams you see the time zone values expressed using the time zone set on the workstation where the job or job stream is planned to run. Based on the setup of the enLegacyStartOfDayEvaluation global option, you can decide how the product manages time zones while processing, and precisely:

If you set the value of enLegacyStartOfDayEvaluation to no

The value assigned to the startOfDay option on the master domain manager is not converted into the local time zone set on each workstation across the network. This means that if the startOfDay option is set to 0600 on the master domain manager, it is 0600 in the local time zone set on each workstation in the network. This also means that the processing day begins at the same hour, but not at the same moment, on all workstations.

Figure 1 shows you how the start of day, set to 0600 on the master domain manager, is applied to the different time zones on the two fault-tolerant agents. The same time conversion is applied to the three instances of job stream JS1 scheduled to run on the three machines and containing an at time dependency at 0745 US/Central time zone. The time frame that identifies the new processing day is greyed out in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Example when start of day conversion is not applied

If you set the value of enLegacyStartOfDayEvaluation to yes

The value assigned to the startOfDay option on the master domain manager is converted into the local time zone set on each workstation across the network. This means that if the startOfDay option is set to 0600 on the master domain manager, it is converted on each workstation into the corresponding time according to the local time zone set on that workstation. This also means that the scheduling day begins at the same moment, but not necessarily at the same hour, on all workstations in the network.

Figure 2 shows you how the start of day, set to 0600 on the master domain manager, is applied to the different time zones on the two fault-tolerant agents. It also shows how the timing of the three instances of job stream JS1 scheduled to run on the three machines and containing an at time dependency at 0745 US/Central time zone is not modified because of the startOfDay conversion. The time frame that identifies the new processing day is greyed out in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Example when start of day conversion is applied