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Methods for Starting the Preventive Maintenance Engine

The Preventive Maintenance Engine applies to the FS Preventive Maintenance business service. For more information, see FS Preventive Maintenance Business Service.

Start the Preventive Maintenance Engine in the following ways:

• Use component jobs.
• Use the Field Service client.

Using Component Jobs

Administrators can set up one-time or repeating jobs for tasks that the Preventive Maintenance Engine completes. The component-specific parameters that the job specifies determine the engine actions for that job. For more information, see Parameters for the Preventive Maintenance Engine.

In general, tasks must define the following variables:

• A set of objects for the engine to operate on.
• A date that is the latest date to schedule preventive maintenance during the run.
• The mode in which the task runs. When calling the PM Engine through component jobs, you can specify either ID or SQL mode for this variable. (The Field Service client uses another mode, TempTbl, when calling the PM Engine.)
• The sub-mode. The sub-mode determines the entities for the selected mode.

The set of objects must include either assets and plans or agreements. The sub-mode parameter in the job defines these objects. For assets and plans, if you specify only assets or only plans, then all of the other object types are assumed. For example, if you specify only assets (sub-mode is Assets), then the Preventive Maintenance Engine checks the specified assets for all plans. If you specify agreements, then each agreement implicitly defines a set of assets and plans (entitlements have associated assets or products and PM plans) that the engine processes for the agreement.

Usually these jobs use an SQL parameter that completes an SQL statement. The SQL statement locates the objects that the Preventive Maintenance Engine processes for the run. Component jobs can also use ID parameters instead of SQL parameters.

Using the Field Service Client

Users can pass requests directly from the Field Service client. For information about calling the PM Engine from the Assets screen or the Agreements screen, see Running Preventive Maintenance Plans (End User).