DSXchange

My apologies if this is a subject already addressed in earlier posts, I just seem to have a hard time getting good search results at the moment...

What I'd like to ask is what the most feasible way is to let a windows based scheduling tool (Tech Scheduler) start jobs on a Data Stage Unix server. Do we need to use some kind of remote login and then initiate dsjob on the server or can commands be passed through the DataStage Windows client tools somehow? I know this may be more of an OS issue than purely DS but any useful information is most welcome.

A second use of this might be to have users start jobs ad-hoc when need for data updates arise aside from the scheduled runs. That will then probably be initiated from a web based interface; same question arises here about the most feasible way to accomplish this.

One solution that has been discussed is to have execute requests entered as records in a database table and have DS poll the table every minute or so, but that still feels like a semi-dirty solution...

Probably the easiest is to use remote execution (rexec), remote shell (rsh or remsh) or remote login (rlogin), depending on which of these your UNIX administrator allows.

Check, too, whether the Windows-based scheduler has any of its own functions for invoking programs on other systems. If so, it may be a more secure mechanism.

As far as I know there's no mechanism for invoking the Director to request a job run from the Windows (DOS) command line, and therefore would assume there's no means from a Windows-based scheduler.

If you are running 7.5 then any DataStage client installation includes the 'dsjob' executable. So it sounds like you should be able to use a Windows based scheduler to execute DataStage jobs on a UNIX server as long as the client was installed on the same machine as the scheduler.

I'm not making fun of you, but you're using a $30/user near-shareware desktop PC scheduling program to run your $250,000 ETL tool?

Your best option is to develop your own secure rsh script to handle a remotely authorized command execution on your Unix server. You'll be able to schedule that script to execute the dsjob command on the local Unix server to start your jobstream.

Your issues will be working out the permissions required to allow a Windoze server to execute a Unix login and command. That tends to be the issue with rsh, it's a security hurdle, not a technology one.

In reply to Chulett's post above:
Are you saying that dsjob on a Win machine can actually be used to invoke jobs on a different (Unix) server? I had the impression dsjob had to be run from a command prompt at the actual server or am I wrong?

StefL,

You can trigger a job to run on a UNIX server from the command line "dsjob -run ..." on your windows PC. This is assuming you have DataStage 7.5 installed. All command line options can be used.

In reply to my own recent post;
I just verified on my own system that what Chulett wrote is definitely a way. Dsjob on my client PC has no problems invoking a job on the Unix server.

Would anyone regard this as a solution that has any security glitches that would motivate using an rsh solution instead?

StefL,

no, I would not consider this to be a security hole. But I do question, as did Craig, the necessity of using a PC-based scheduling tool for production on a remote UNIX machine. I would think that using even the built-in batch mechanism on the server would be preferable to a PC solution - and it eleminates potential network security issues.

Well, the reason for Tech Scheduler is that I'm a consultant brought in to do ETL stuff and it's the client's already implemented solution for scheduling all sorts of application jobs, not just Data Stage.
Moreover the whole server side is outsourced and it's the outsourcing partner that also administrates and manages the scheduling so I can't really do much about it - apart from venting my opinion in carefully selected words . I just have to comply and deliver what they ask for...

StefL,

then you have the optimal solution using dsjob.exe on the Windoze side :D Lucky you, I am having to deal with Control-M and BMC Patrol at my current site...