WebSphere DataStage and QualityStage Director

Running jobs

Running jobs with the WebSphere DataStage and QualityStage Director includes the following tasks:

Setting job options

Each time that a job is validated, run, or scheduled, you can set options to change parameters, override default limits for row processing, assign invocation IDs, and set tracing options.

Validating jobs

You can validate jobs before you run them for the first time and after any significant changes to job parameters.

Starting, stopping, or resetting a job run

A job can be run immediately or scheduled to run at a later date.

Creating multiple job invocations

You can create multiple invocations of a WebSphere DataStage server job or parallel job, with each invocation by using different parameters to process different data sets.

Monitoring jobs

The Director client includes a monitoring tool that displays processing information. As Figure 1 shows, the Monitor Job Status window displays the following details:

• Name of the stages that are performing the processing
• Status of each stage
• Number of rows that were processed
• Time to complete each stage
• Rows per second

Figure 1. Monitor Job Status window

A monitor window is available before a job starts, while it is running, or after it completes. You can monitor multiple jobs at the same time with multiple monitor windows.

Reviewing job log files

The job log file is updated when a job is validated, run, or reset. The log file is valuable for troubleshooting jobs that fail during validation or that end abnormally.

Each log file describes events that occurred during the last (or previous) runs of the job. Figure 2 shows a graphical view of the log. The most recent or current run is shown in black, the previous run is shown in dark blue, and the others are in light blue. Entries are written to the log at these intervals:

• A job or batch starts or finishes
• A stage starts or finishes
• Rejected rows are output
• Warnings or errors are generated

Figure 2. Job log view

When an event is selected from the job log, you can view the full message in the Event Detail window, as Figure 3 shows. This window contains a summary of the job and event details.

Figure 3. Event Detail window

You can use the window to display related jobs. You can also filter items in the log by time and event types, such as warnings.

Command-line interfaces

You can start, stop, and monitor WebSphere DataStage jobs from the command line and by using an extensive API.

The Command stage is an active stage that can run various external commands, including WebSphere DataStage engine commands, programs, and WebSphere DataStage jobs from anywhere in the WebSphere DataStage data flow.

You can run any command, including its arguments, by using the native command window (shell) of the operating system, such as Windows NT^® or UNIX^®. Examples include Perl scripts, DOS batch files, UNIX scripts, and other command-line executable programs that you can call if they are not interactive.

Command line, API, and Web service interfaces also exist to return job monitoring information, as text or XML.