Automating Administrative Tasks
This chapter provides the steps you take to set up the
Automation Service and schedule jobs that perform routine portal administration
tasks.
- About JobsJobs allow you to schedule portal management operations. A job is a collection of related operations. Each operation is one task, such as a crawl for documents, an import of users, or one of the system maintenance tasks.
- About Portal AgentsThe portal comes with several operations that can only be accessed through the jobs with which they are associated. These special operations are referred to as agents.
- About Running Scripts Through the PortalAn external operation enables you to run shell scripts (for example, .sh or .bat files) through the portal and schedule these actions through portal jobs. For example, you might want to create a script that queries documents, pings portal servers, e-mails snapshot query results to users, or runs some other custom job, then create an external operation that points to the script, and use a job to run the script on a specified schedule.
- Registering Automation ServicesBefore you can run jobs, you need to register any computers hosting Automation Services and register job folders with those Automation Services. The primary Automation Service is registered when you install the Automation Service and execute the related database scripts described in the Installation Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.
- Registering Job Folders to Run JobsJobs can run only if the folder in which they are stored is assigned to an Automation Service. All of the jobs in a folder are run by one or more Automation Services. If multiple Automation Services are associated with a single folder, the BEA ALI Automation Service assigns jobs according to the resources available on each Automation Service.
- Starting the BEA ALI Automation ServiceThe Automation Service runs as a Windows service. Ensure the BEA ALI Automation Service is configured to start automatically when you boot your system. For information on configuring the BEA ALI Automation Service to start automatically, see the Installation Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.
- Creating JobsWhen you create portal objects that require related jobs, the Create Object editor includes a page to configure and schedule the related job. If you want to create additional jobs independently of the Create Object editors, follow the instructions in this section.
- Associating an Object with a JobOn the Set Job page, you can associate an object with a new or existing job. You run jobs to import users with authentication sources, import content with content crawlers, run external operations, and import user information with profile sources.
- Viewing Job Status and Job LogsYou can view a history for a job as well as the logs from each job on the Job History page of the Automation Service Utility.
- Aborting In-Process JobsOn the Job History page of the Automation Service Utility, you can stop a job that is processing.
