Information Systems Technician Training Series

Transcription

1 NONRESIDENT TRAINING COURSE Information Systems Technician Training Series Modue 1 Administration and Security NAVEDTRA IMPORTANT Any future change to this course can be found at under Products. You shoud routiney check this web site. DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: Approved for pubic reease; distribution is unimited.

2

3 PREFACE About this course: This is a sef-study course. By studying this course, you can improve your professiona/miitary knowedge, as we as prepare for the Navywide advancement-in-rate examination. It contains subject matter about dayto-day occupationa knowedge and ski requirements and incudes text, tabes, and iustrations to hep you understand the information. An additiona important feature of this course is its reference to usefu information in other pubications. The we-prepared Saior wi take the time to ook up the additiona information. Training series information: This is Modue 1 of a series. For a isting and description of the entire series, see NAVEDTRA 12061, Cataog of Nonresident Training Courses, at History of the course: Apr 1997: Origina edition reeased. Authored by RMCS(SW/AW) Deborah Hearn and DPC(SW) Water Shugar, Jr. Aug 2003: Administrative update reeased. Administrative changes and corrections have been entered into the text. No significant technica content changes were made. Pubished by NAVAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER POINTS OF CONTACT ADDRESS E-mai: feetservices@cnet.navy.mi COMMANDING OFFICER Phone: To free: (877) Comm: (850) /1181/1859 NETPDTC N SAUFLEY FIELD ROAD PENSACOLA FL DSN: /1181/1859 FAX: (850) Technica content assistance. Contact a Subject Matter Expert at under Exam Info, Contact Your Exam Writer. NAVSUP Logistics Tracking Number 0504-LP

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 1. AIS Administration Communications Administration Communications Security AIS Security Genera Security APPENDIX I. Gossary... AI-1 II. Gossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations... III. References Used to Deveop This NRTC... AII-1 AIII-1 INDEX...INDEX-1 ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS foow Index.

5 CHAPTER 1 AIS ADMINISTRATION LEARNING OBJECTIVES Upon competing this chapter, you shoud be abe to do the foowing: Describe the preparation and monitoring of the run schedue. Examine consoe printouts, ogs, and describe the anaysis of consoe printouts and ogs. Schedue computer downtime with users, to incude hardware maintenance and software upgrades. Prepare emergency urgent change requests, to incude appication and system programs. Prepare, review, and coordinate troube reports. Describe how to conduct and update an AIS equipment inventory. Describe the preparation and anaysis of system performance reports. Expain the estabishment and maintenance of system resource imits. Describe how to project future appication growth capabiities. Expain how to prepare guideines for contingency/disaster recoveries, to incude adequate repacement parts and backup media and current backups. Are scheduing systems reay necessary to get the work done? No; but uness you are working at an AIS faciity with unimited resources, it woud not be ong before confusion and disorder set in if you did not have one. That woud be foowed by unhappy and dissatisfied users demanding their output products in a timey manner. Users rey on computer operations and support personne to get their jobs done on time. Whether your AIS faciity has one or severa computers, it wi be your job to see that the AIS production work of your command is processed in a timey reamer. This means schedues. You wi need to deveop monthy production schedues in coordination with user-assigned subsystem coordinators. You wi aso need to deveop daiy workoad schedues to meet user-estabished deadines. If your computer system has onine capabiities, you wi need to be sure users have access when they need it and that the system is responsive. Technica administration and support are important aspects of automated information system (AIS) faciity management. As a technica administrator, you wi be making hardware and software projection reports, software performance reports, hardware utiization reports, and troube reports. You wi be responsibe for 1-1

6 impementing performance-tuning initiatives to improve computer system performance. You wi aso be expected to project future appication growth capabiities. A these are technica functions needed to ensure the smooth operation of an AIS faciity. In this chapter, you wi earn about the many varied tasks you may perform as an input/output contro cerk and then as a scheduer, reports preparation, troube reports, technica assists, and operationa guideines. Our objective is to give you a better understanding of the importance, scope, and responsibiities that go with processing production jobs receiving jobs, scheduing AIS production within the AIS faciity, and ensuring the accuracy and timeiness of products. I/O CONTROL I/O contro is the interface between the user and the computer system. Figure 1-1 shows an exampe of the roe payed by I/O contro in the processing of computer jobs. I/O CONTROL PROCEDURES I/O, as you know, stands for input/output. The peope who perform I/O functions are caed contro cerks, I/O contro cerks, job-staging cerks, distribution cerks, or computer aids. In short, these are the peope who are responsibe for the quaity and contro of data processing input and output media and products. They ensure that the data to be processed meets a the requirements as outined in the input criteria (instructions and procedures), that a data are processed, that a processing steps are performed, that the output products are distributed to the appropriate users once they are compete. To be an efficient and effective I/O contro cerk, you shoud be abe to work on your own with a minimum of supervision; work we with other peope; dispay tact and dipomacy; be a good communicator; use sound judgment; be ogica, methodica, and persuasive; and most of a be abe to respond to users requests. Athough you may manage to stay out of the imeight in this job, you do perform an integra function in the overa ADP operation. The importance and impact you have (whether it be aboard ship or ashore) is far-reaching and invauabe. Most opinions formuated by the AIS users (customers) are based on the quaity of their output products and their persona contact with you as an I/O contro cerk. Your attitude toward your job and its importance is seen not ony by the customer, but aso by your feow workers, supervisor, and, in some cases, management. The quaity of your work wi be your signature when deaing with other AIS personne and customers. I/O contro is a process. Your job wi be to foow your instaation s procedures. Athough the procedures may differ from one instaation to another, they a require the same knowedge and skis. As an I/O contro cerk, you act as the midde person between the user (customer) and the computer. Normay, the users come to you with a transmitta or request form and sometimes with their input source documents, magnetic tapes, diskettes, and so on. Before accepting and ogging in their jobs, take a few moments to ook over the transmitta form. Be sure that a the necessary entries are propery fied in, that they are readabe, and that any specia instructions are understandabe. It is better to cear up any misunderstandings right then and there, rather than having to contact the user again ater and possiby cause a deay in the job getting on the computer. Never be embarrassed to ask questions. You must remember that many of the users you come in contact with are non-adp oriented; therefore, it is up to you to hep them understand the process and its requirements. Once you have ogged the job in, you may work with data entry to prepare data or programs; then with the media ibrary to pu the needed tapes or disks; and then with computer operations to have the job run. Once the job has been run on the computer, you may check the output products. When you are sure the outputs are OK, you distribute them according to instructions, og the job out, and fie or return the job materias to the user. Study figure 1-1 for a few moments. It wi hep you see how the work fows and how you, as an I/O contro cerk, fit in the picture. The functiona areas are isted across the top of the figure. As you enter the eve of midde management, you wi be required to take on added duties and additiona responsibiities. You wi be a technica administrator, and you wi provide support to management. You wi use your expertise to evauate current procedures and equipment and to make recommendations for improvements to operations. This incudes estimating future equipment needs. 1-2

7 Figure 1-1. Typica I/O contro workfow. 1-3

8 OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS Your operationa requirements wi incude some or a of the foowing tasks: Receive user job requests. Maintain input and output contro ogs. Verify inputs to be processed to ensure they are correct and in accordance with the run foder or run instructions. Make system contro anguage (SCL) run stream changes as required for correct data processing of the user s runs. Input the user s run package (jobs) to the computer operations personne according to a schedue. Monitor the jobs in progress to ensure that a data are processed and that a processing steps have been propery performed. Baance the number of records input reative to the number output. Verify the format and the number of copies of each printed output in accordance with instructions in the run foder. Reconcie processing discrepancies and inconsistencies. Ensure that printed outputs are compete, propery coated, and assembed. Arrange for distribution of outputs to authorized users. Operate a variety of auxiiary equipment: copying machines, decoators, tape ceaners, CRT terminas, and so on. Become famiiar with the basic operations of the AIS computer faciity. Now that you are famiiar with the process and with operationa responsibiities, et s ook at the parts: transmitta forms, input contro ogs, job preparation, scheduing, monitoring, and output products. Processing AIS Service Requests Your first task may be to receive jobs from users. Each job wi have an AIS service request of some type. A typica AIS service request is iustrated in figure 1-2. In ooking over this form, you wi notice that it provides you with such information as the foowing: o The program name, job number, or task number that is used to reference a particuar job appication; The user s name, department and/or organization, and phone number; Where and/or to whom the output is to be sent; The desired competion date of the job; The computer (machine type) to be used for the job. The type of operation to be performed: production, test, assembe, compie, and so on; The quantity and type of input media and/or materia to be used: magnetic tape, bank checks, and so on; and Any specia instructions or remarks the user wishes to incude. You wi aso notice that the ower portion of the AIS service request (see figure 1-2) is reserved for operations use ony. This is where you enter the time and date that the job was accepted for processing (ower eft-hand corner). The remaining bocks are used by the peope in operations to indicate when the job started, when it was competed, aong with any significant comments about the job during the time it was run. If, whie reviewing the user s request, you happen to come across a discrepancy or find something that is incompete or uncear, be sure to bring it to the user s attention. Just remember that throughout the course of your conversation, you are to be tactfu and dipomatic. You must aways keep in mind that you are representing your command, and the image you project, both personay and professionay, is as important to your job as the work that is being submitted. The key word is communication, NOT confrontation. Once you have accepted the user s request, you make the necessary entries in the job contro og. Job Contro Log A job contro og is important, especiay when you dea with mutipe users. It wi be up to you to keep an up-to-date record of a jobs received for processing. A job contro og wi serve as a continuous point of 1-4

9 Figure 1-2. A typica AIS service request. 1-5

10 reference. Figure 1-3 iustrates a typica ayout of input contro information. When you receive a job, make an initia entry in the og. As the job progresses, make additiona entries as appropriate. For exampe, if you send input to data entry to be keyed, record this in the og. In the event a job or its accompanying input becomes side-tracked, mispaced, or ost, you sti have a means of tracking down the job or its input. The og can be of great hep. It points out such things as when the job was submitted, the disposition of the input media, the ocation or the computer system to which the job was assigned, the progress (number of steps) the job has aready gone through, the type and amount of input submitted, the person who accepted the job, and soon. If you are sti unabe to ocate the missing item, you are abe to notify the user. That person s name, organization, and phone number were initia entries in the og. Job Preparation To propery prepare the user s job (specificay the input) for processing, you must have a certain amount of information. This information is ocated in what is caed a task foder, job foder, run foder, or run procedure. Do not confuse these with run book, run manua, or run instructions, which provide computer program operating instructions for the operators. The task foder provides you with such things as a run sheet, contro parameters, and output requirements. RUN SHEET. The run sheet contains the program name or names and the job or task number under Figure 1-3. Job contro og. which the job (or system) is to be executed or run. In addition, it indicates a of the inputs: magnetic tapes, disks, and diskettes required, depending upon the type of run or possibe options the user seected. There coud be one or severa magnetic tapes and/or disk fies needed for the job. You might be required to retrieve them from the media ibrary, or you might just ookup the tape/disk numbers and annotate them on the run sheet. CONTROL PARAMETERS. The task foder wi aso indicate any parameters that are required. These parameters provide appication programs with variabe information, data eements that change from one run to the next. For exampe, the type of run requested: (D)aiy, (W)eeky, (M)onthy, (Y)eary, (E)dit input ony, and so on, or the entering of a date. You maybe required to key in one or severa of these parameters, depending upon the compexity of the system. OUTPUT REQUIREMENTS. The task foder and/or the computer run sheet show you a of the output products: magnetic tapes/disks, and specia forms that are produced during the running of the job or system. As an I/O contro cerk, you maybe tasked to provide the computer operators with the correct number of bank, handwritten, or preprinted output tape/disk abes and ensure a sufficient suppy of tapes, disks, paper, and specia forms are on hand before the job or system is schedued to be run. Job Monitoring Athough we woud ike to beieve a jobs run without error, there are occasions when a program 1-6

11 prematurey or abnormay terminates. It does not process to norma end of job (EOJ). When this occurs, the operator is expected to take whatever corrective actions are necessary to get the job going again. More often than not, the operator is abe to recover a job by recreating a tape/disk fie, moving the fie to another device, or possiby ceaning the read/write mechanisms of the device prior to rerun. But, there are times when the operator wi notify you (the I/O contro cerk) to assist in correcting the probem. Such woud be the case when the input parameters are in error, the user s input is bad, or the job aborted because of an unrecoverabe program error. If this happens, you maybe responsibe for coecting a the data, both input and output, aong with any memory dumps, and forwarding them a to the programmer. During the recovery phase of an operation, the operator may need you to provide certain input parameters or tape/disk fies before the job can be executed. Because of time constraints, a job that abnormay terminates may have to be reschedued. If so, you may be responsibe for seeing to it that the job gets reschedued and that the user is notified of any job deay. We coud go on and on, but by now you are beginning to get the picture. These exampes are just a few of the many things that can get in the way of achieving a norma EOJ. We bring them to your attention to make you aware of the types of probems that can and do arise, and the manner in which you are to respond. Hopefuy, you now know and are aware that monitoring a job means more than just caing up the operator to see how the job is progressing. It means you must oversee the job to its competion, doing whatever is necessary to hep keep the job (or system) on track. Output Products Output from computer processing The work that has been competed may take the form of a printed document, magnetic tape, or magnetic disk or diskette. In a cases, both you and the computer operator are responsibe for ensuring that a competed jobs run successfuy. In addition, you are responsibe for identifying and coordinating the various outputs for each job, and for initiating their correct distribution. To determine whether a job (or system) ran successfuy (to a norma EOJ) and that a processing steps were propery performed, you may have to review the computer consoe printout. This printout indicates such things as the number of input records read, the various input fies updated, a error conditions (error messages) that the operator encountered during the run and the resuting actions taken, the various output fies created, and so on. In the majority of cases, the computer consoe printout wi provide you with the answers you are ooking for when it comes to reconciing processing discrepancies. For exampe, it wi inform you of the reasons certain output products tapes, diskettes, or report istings were not produced. Possiby the operator seected an incorrect program option, or the input parameters were incorrect or incompete before starting the job. In short, you are responsibe and aso accountabe for every job you work on, from the time it is submitted by the user unti its deivery back to the user. When checking the user s output, you shoud once again refer to the run sheet and/or task foder to verify that a items requested were, in fact, produced. If the output is in the form of magnetic tape, disk, or diskette, be sure it is abeed propery, given the proper cassification, and it is on the appropriate media (magnetic media that has been designated for mai-out or distribution ony). When checking reports, make sure they were run on the proper forms (size and type), that no pages are missing and the correct number of copies were printed, and that a print is egibe and ined up propery. Once the output is checked, you then package each competed copy of the report, aong with any other output products and the origina input, pace it in the proper pickup area, and og the job out in the job contro og. You may need to notify the user when the job is ready. If, during the course of checking over the user s output, you happen to come across something unusua or you find an error, by a means, pu (reject) the job immediatey, bring it to the attention of your superior, and notify the user of the deay. Even at this ate stage, it is better to reject a job to correct any probems or discrepancies rather than to reease it, ony to have it returned for rerun ater. USER SUPPORT The term user support covers a broad range of duties. They incude answering inquiries from users, providing ogistica support, and processing troube reports. User Inquiries Norma inquiries from users incude system status, job status, and reporting troube. It is the job of the technician to answer these questions prompty and accuratey. A user might ask: Why is the system sow? 1-7

12 What is the status of a particuar job? What step is it in? Has it printed out yet? Do I have a probem with my termina? Logistica Support The most common user support you wi dea with is ogistica support. This wi incude the need for new or different equipment to meet the command s mission or current equipment that needs corrective maintenance, or scheduing preventive maintenance. Forward this type of user support to the division chief or the division officer, since it requires the reocation or the acquisition of equipment. Troube Cas As the technician, you wi be receiving and responding to troube cas. When the user cas to submit a troube ca, remember to get a the required information: * User s name; Type of troube encountered;. Date and time; and Job being done when the troube started. The preceding is ony an exampe of what might be incuded on the troube report at your command. Your command wi have the reporting procedures for submitting troube reports, with an exampe of a troube report. Each command has a specific troube ca format and a tracking procedure. CUSTOMER LIAISON When invoved with or communicating with the user (customer), you must use tact and dipomacy. You must be abe to understand and resove the requests of the customer. You wi aso have to dea with discrepancies and expain probems to customers. You must be abe to independenty recognize and resove discrepancies and be knowedgeabe enough to know when you can resove a discrepancy and when to refer compex probems to your supervisor or eading chief. MANAGING PRODUCTION Once you become a shift supervisor, you wi be responsibe for managing the scheduing and operation of a production activities associated with computer processing within your shift. You wi monitor the workfow and make adjustments to meet changing requirements. During your work shift, one of your many jobs wi be to monitor job/production status on a reguar basis to determine if there is any actua or potentia sippage in the schedue. It wi be your job to baance operations resources and optimize workfow. There wi be times when you must make adjustments in the sequence of work (within the constraints of the overa schedue) to optimize productivity. In computer operations, you must be abe to examine probems that have occurred during production and initiate corrective action within operations or with the users. THE SCHEDULING ENVIRONMENT AND REQUIREMENTS Scheduers and production contro coordinators are responsibe for coordinating the work efforts of many peope. They prepare, distribute, and maintain production schedues for their AIS faciity or data center. They anayze job requirements (od and new) to determine the impact each job has on production resources. They aso inform the LPO or division chief when scheduing requirements wi exceed computer system resources. In short, scheduers act as coordinators from the time a request is received unti a job is successfuy competed. The scheduer is responsibe for keeping the AIS faciity s assemby ine running as smoothy and effcienty as possibe. Scheduers ensure that jobs are schedued and entered into the production job stream at the proper time. They aso ensure that a necessary resources are avaiabe to maintain a constant workfow throughout the AIS faciity. PEOPLE, PLACES, and THINGS are the important factors of a scheduer s job. The first factor is PEOPLE. You must earn to dea with various personaities. The second factor is PLACES. You have to earn what goes on in other fictiona work areas. The third factor is THINGS. You have to cope with run times, deadines, computer hardware and software 1-8

13 mafunctions, probems with production programs, and TIME itsef (that 24-hour period in which you are to schedue as much production work as possibe). THE SCHEDULING ENVIRONMENT How difficut is it to prepare a schedue? you might ask. That depends on the size and compexity of your data processing instaation in terms of hardware, software, and support personne. You must consider many things when preparing a schedue. As a start, you have to ask yoursef the foowing questions: o What types of jobs are to be processed? In what processing environment wi the jobs run rea-time? onine? batch? What specia-handing requirements are there, if any? What amount of work is to be processed (workoad)? As scheduer, you wi be responsibe for: Preparing and maintaining estabished schedues for various time periods: daiy, weeky, and monthy; Reviewing and acting on a types of AIS service requests as they are submitted to you; Distributing production schedues to various work areas within your AIS faciity; Organizing data processing priorities for both schedued and nonschedued work; Entering jobs into the production job stream to achieve maximum use of computer resources; Tracking work in progress to ensure everything is running according to schedue; Anayzing probems in connection with production jobs and adjusting computer processing schedues to use whatever time is avaiabe unti probems can be corrected and a rerun can be initiated; Maintaining accurate ogs and adhering to administrative reporting requirements; and Determining the accuracy of schedues based on reviewing production resuts. How you go about scheduing work on the computer system wi depend on two factors. The first factor deas with how the system is configured. You must consider the number of processors and periphera devices avaiabe and how they interconnect. The second factor deas with the operating mode of the computer. The operating mode may be batch, onine, rea-time, time sharing, mutiprogramming, mutiprocessing, teeprocessing, networking, or any combination of these. Having knowedge of the different operating modes wi hep you understand the operating environment in which you wi be working. This knowedge wi hep you understand how to go about scheduing work for the system. THE JOB OF SCHEDULER The job of scheduer, or production contro coordinator as it is sometimes caed, requires you to have specific knowedge and skis if you are to effectivey schedue the computer and the other reated activities that revove around it. You must have a good working knowedge of AIS concepts and be thoroughy famiiar with the operation of your faciity s computer system(s) the actua hardware components themseves. You aso need to know how the operating system in use works, what appications and production jobs you are to schedue, the time it takes to run them, how to make up job streams using system contro anguage (SCL) statements, and so on. One of your primary jobs wi be to keep production schedues up-to-date and as accurate and compete as possibe. In addition to making up production schedues for computer processing, you must be equay concerned with two other factors: precomputer processing and postcomputer processing. Precomputer processing incudes ensuring a inputs are received on time according to prearranged schedues. Postcomputer processing incudes ensuring output products are compete, accurate, and deivered to the user when promised. Too often these areas are either overooked or forgotten, because our interest is generay focused on the computer. We can easiy overoad or underoad precomputer and postcomputer resources. This wi have the same effect as overoading or underoading the computer either user service deteriorates or AIS services are underused. For TOTAL AIS scheduing to be achieved, YOU must consider a of the fictiona work areas in the assemby ine, especiay the end users. A are affected by the scheduing process, and because of this, you must give each work area proper consideration. Having working knowedge and experience in the fictiona areas for which you wi prepare schedues wi aso hep you. As scheduer, you wi be putting 1-9

14 together information from severa sources: I/O contro, data entry, and the magnetic media ibrary. Depending upon how your AIS faciity is structured, your operationa requirements wi incude tasks, duties, and functions as foows: * o o o o 8 Receive user job requests. Anayze production requirements. Assign job/run contro numbers. Maintain accurate ogs. Carry out administrative reporting requirements. Prepare production schedues. Write SCL statements. Make up job streams for production runs. Maintain and revise production schedues. Distribute production schedues. Monitor production. Know how jobs interface. Be abe to read consoe run sheets and ogs. Know the capabiities and capacities of the computer systems. Know the fies in use and how to reconstruct them. Know how to readjust schedues. Know the time it takes to run each production job. As scheduer, you wi work on your own with ony minima supervision. To be effective, you wi need more than a good working knowedge of your faciity s hardware components, data processing concepts, operating systems, and system contro anguages. You must be abe to: Work we with other peope; Demonstrate tact and dipomacy; Use sound judgment; Be ogica, systematic, and persuasive; Demonstrate anaytica abiity; Be a good communicator (speaking, istening, and writing); and. Be responsive to users needs. The job of a scheduer is a high-visibiity position. You wi be responsibe not ony for the fow of work throughout the AIS faciity but aso for the amount of work that wi be accompished within an aocated period of time. AIS WORKFLOW ANALYSIS Every AIS faciity is site unique regarding the types of hardware and operating system (OS) software in use. However, every site does have a forma or informa workoad structure that encompasses a of the AIS fictiona work areas and the users. Figure 1-4 iustrates a typica AIS faciity s workfow structure. This particuar site operates in a mutiprogramming environment and handes batch, onine batch, and rea-time processing. Study this figure for a moment. You wi see how the work fows in, and about, and out of the AIS faciity. You wi see how you, as a scheduer, fit into the picture. In ooking at figure 1-4, you wi notice this AIS faciity is composed of five fictiona work areas: o * o Production Contro Scheduing, I/O Contro, Quaity Contro; Data Entry; Computer Operations; Media Library; and Technica Support. Each functiona work area is responsibe for specific segments of the workfow. How they work together and with you, as the scheduer, wi determine if your job is easier or more difficut. Learn what they do. The next paragraphs wi give you a basic understanding of their responsibiities and their interactions with other work areas. PRODUCTION CONTROL personne act as iaison between the AIS faciity and the user community. The division chief and LPO normay dea with users during the initia scheduing phase. They wi assist scheduing by ironing out any probems eary in the scheduing phase. When necessary, they wi aso work with the users to adjust data fow and output schedues based on user and production requirements. SCHEDULING personne make production commitments for the AIS faciity to meet user requirements. They provide processing schedues to coordinate inputs and outputs between I/O contro, data 1-10

15 Figure 1-4. AIS faciity workfow structure. 1-11

16 entry, computer operations, and the magnetic media ibrary. I/O CONTROL personne hande a incoming work for AIS services aong with a types of input media from the user. Some of these inputs are source documents, magnetic tape, and diskettes. I/O contro personne perform the foowing tasks: Count, verify, edit, and tota a source documents received; Check that the amount of input data is approximatey the same amount as was indicated in the production schedue; Verify a incoming work for accuracy and egibiity; Log a inputs received in various input/output contro ogs; Coordinate the receipt of ate submissions with users and scheduing; Forward source documents to data entry and computer inputs to either computer operations or the media ibrary depending on when the job is schedued; Receive output products from quaity contro; process, og, and package output products; and ensure proper and timey deivery to users. QUALITY CONTROL personne review a competed output products from data entry and computer operations to determine their accuracy and competeness before reeasing them to I/O contro personne for further processing and distribution. They forward incompete or incorrect jobs to scheduing or technica support for further investigation. DATA ENTRY personne convert source documents into machine-readabe form using some type of key-driven (termina) device if this is not done by the user. They accept source documents, key-enter and verify a inputs, and return competed data to quaity contro so it can be checked for competeness and accuracy before turning it back over to I/O contro to be submitted with the job. COMPUTER OPERATIONS personne operate the computer and associated periphera devices in accordance with authorized schedues. They receive inputs and associated run instructions from I/O contro, update schedues as the work is competed, forward output products to quaity contro, and transfer magnetic media to the ibrary for further handing and processing. MEDIA LIBRARY personne check in/out tapes, disks, diskettes, and documentation to computer operations personne. They aso condition, cean, retire, store, and transfer magnetic media to off-site storage and other outside activities. TECHNICAL SUPPORT personne provide scheduing and production contro with technica support, as needed, to resove production probems. They examine probems that occur during production to determine if errors were caused by hardware or system/appications software. Then, they initiate corrective action with computer operations and/or scheduing. By charting a AIS faciity functions and defining their interreationships, you, as scheduer, are abe to create a workfow diagram for your particuar scheduing environment. It wi hep you to decide which functions and fictiona areas require scheduing and which do not. Now that you have some idea of how the work fows in, and about, and out of the AIS faciity, et s see how you, as a scheduer, fit into the picture. Normay, the users get together with the division chief, LPO, and yoursef (as scheduer) to make their requests for AIS services known for the upcoming month(s). This initia scheduing phase is known as the panning phase or forecasting phase. By knowing these workoad demands eary, more time is avaiabe to determine where excessive demands and inadequate demands are being made on resources. To put it another way, the forecasting phase aows everyone to see where there may be an overoading or underoading of AIS resources. As the users go about presenting their daiy, weeky, and monthy requirements, you wi be busy incorporating their requirements into the production schedue. During the forecasting phase, you must remember to set aside whatever time is needed for fie and computer maintenance. You shoud pay particuar attention to those out-of-the-ordinary and one-time requests that tend to pop up. These, too, must be accommodated in the schedue. When given a new job where there are no previous production statistics, ask the user for a rough time estimate of how ong the job may run. Ask if there wi be input data, and if so, wi it require data entry services. Know how many and what resources the job wi use. Know the environment in which the job wi run onine, batch, or rea-time. You wi want to keep a cose eye on new jobs. Using previous schedues and scheduing procedures as a guideine, you can begin to prepare 1-12

17 (pan) a rough schedue. When scheduing od jobs, you wi have expience and history to foow. Knowing what resources (hardware, software, and personne) your AIS faciity has avaiabe wi hep you see where the peaks (overoading) and vaeys (underoading) are in the schedue. It wi be your job to take the resources, the time avaiabe, the estimated run times, the time jobs must be started and competed, and whatever other information is needed to estabish a meaningfu and workabe schedue with the best job mix possibe. You wi prioritize and pan. Once you have ironed out a the wrinkes and prepared a smooth schedue, you wi submit it up the chain of command for approva. Once approved, you wi distribute the schedues to the various functiona work areas. THE BENEFITS OF SCHEDULING What are some of the benefits of having a schedue/ scheduing system in pace? One answer is PREDICT- ABILITY. A scheduing system makes everyone s job easier by adding predictabiity to the AIS environment. To your superiors, it provides a means of hoding down costs through better use of personne and equipment. Other possibe benefits of scheduing areas foows: Effective use of a AIS resources; Increased throughput; Decreased turnaround time; User deadines met; Users made responsibe for providing input on schedue; Improved communications with users; Avoidance of overoading and underuse of resources; Job deays more readiy apparent; Documentation of scheduing deviations and their causes; Reduced confusion within the AIS faciity; Better use of mutiprogramming capabiities; AIS faciity abe to review its own effectiveness; Predictabiity of the effects of an increased workoad; and Predictabiity of future equipment and personne needs. A of these benefits can be achieved through an effective scheduing system. THE SCHEDULING PROCESS The scheduing process has three moving parts: you, the information, and the method. Let s ook at each. THE SCHEDULER As scheduer, you must be we organized. Scheduing jobs through the various work areas within your AIS faciity is much ike scheduing the events of your own persona day-to-day ife, except it s a ot more technica and invoved. You set aside predetermined amounts of time to do certain things. Ca it a things-to-do ist if you wi. It woud be nice if your things-to-do ist consisted of nothing more than having to accept incoming requests from the users, finding hoes to pug their jobs into the schedue, and waiting for the jobs to show up on the competed ist. If that were the case, your things-to-do ist woud be reativey sma and seemingy uncompicated. If your AIS faciity has such an abundance of resources that any demands made by the users can be easiy met, then your faciity is probaby wasting resources and incurring more expenses than it shoud. This is probaby not the case. To the contrary, your command wi probaby have just enough resources or too few. As scheduer, you must decide which jobs to process first, second, third, and so on. Which jobs can be run together? You need to determine the job mix. How big are the jobs in terms of memory use? What resources do they use-disk drives, tape drives, printer, and so on? How ong wi each job run? In what environment must each job be run? Under idea conditions, you can work through your things-to-do ist in a reativey short period of time and come up with a workabe schedue. In reaity, however, things do not necessariy go according to pan or, rather, according to schedue. Equipment, other peope, and outside infuences are a probem areas. A ack of productivity and missed deadines can be caused by unexpected probems, such as: o Late submission of input from the user; Waiting for data entry to compete a job step; Having to ocate a missing fie in the ibrary; Job stream parameters entered into the system incorrecty. 1-13

18 You may face any number of these and other situations each day. You shoud have a backup or contingency pan in the event you ose a piece of hardware. For exampe, if the fastest printer is down, wi the user be satisfied with one printed copy now and the remaining copies printed tomorrow? Or is there another AIS faciity in your immediate area that wi et you use its printer? It wi be your job to prepare the most reaistic schedue you can, and then be ready to adjust it. What toos wi you have to hep you prepare the schedues? What information wi you need? What methods can you use? In the foowing section, we tak about the types of information you wi need to prepare a schedue. Then we expore a few of the scheduing methods you might use. INFORMATION NEEDS Regardess of the scheduing method used, you wi need to know specific types of information. Some information is job-reated; that is, information about the resources, media, and time needed for a particuar job. Some information is AIS faciity-reated; for exampe, workoad, anticipated resource changes, number of operators avaiabe, the system capabiities and capacities, and so on. You wi need to consider both. Let s ook at the job-reated and AIS faciity-reated areas in a itte more depth. One of the most apparent pieces of job-reated information is that every job has resource requirements. These requirements vary consideraby from one job to the next. One job may require 125K of memory with no other periphera devices except a printer for output. Another job may require four tape drives, two disk drives, a printer, and ony 40K of memory. But a job s resources cannot be ooked at in these terms aone. Can you reca the terms PREcomputer and POSTcomputer processing? A AIS faciity resources must be considered. You must consider data entry functions, job setup functions, and output contro functions. Overoading data entry can deay jobs, causing them to be assembed for computer processing ater than schedued. Suppose I/O contro is overoaded. What difference woud it make if jobs were processed and competed as schedued? They woud ony be deayed because work is backed up or personne are not avaiabe. Overutiization of resources affects service. Underutiization of resources is expensive and wastefu. The baance wi be up to you and the efficiency of your schedue. Another piece of job-reated information to consider is processing time. To set aside a sufficient amount of time for processing, you must know how ong a job wi reside in memory. Processing time is normay estimated for a mutiprogramming environment since most computers today process programs/data in this fashion, and job mix affects the overa processing time for a job. Let s assume you have a static workoad with no jobs being added to or deeted from the schedue. Even under these conditions, you can expect job processing to deviate from the schedue. Why? you might ask. The reasons for this are the uncertainty about job processing time and disrupted processing. Take, for exampe, a job that normay has a processing time of 45 minutes. Today, because of a arge increase in input, the job processing time is 1 hour, thus deaying a the foowing jobs by 15 minutes. This is unavoidabe and must be expected. The same is true of disrupted processing, whether it is hardware faiure or software probems. One way to avoid these deays is to incude a specified amount of buffer time in your schedue. You might add a safety factor of 10 percent to the expected processing time. In our previous exampe where processing time increased from 45 minutes to 1 hour, a buffer time of 10 percent woud ony give you an additiona 4.5 minutes of processing time. This woud sti have been inadequate. However, since a the foowing jobs aso have buffer time buit into their schedued processing time, the job overrun shoud not be that critica for meeting the overa schedue of a shift. Another piece of job-reated information to consider appies to mutiprogramming environments. The chaenge here is to combine as many jobs as possibe so that each resource is used to its maximum. In a nonmutiprogramming environment, you have no probem in scheduing jobs because you can process ony one job at a time. However, resources are underutiized, and that s a fact you must ive with. This is a direct resut of having a resources dedicated to one computer, even when they are not needed. On the other hand, mutiprogramming aows you to execute severa jobs at the same time using as many resources as possibe. The difficuty of manuay preparing such a schedue for a system that runs in a mutiprogramming environment is in trying to obtain a job mix that makes the best use of most resources without bogging down the entire computer system. Figure 1-5 gives you some idea of how main storage and peripheras can be fuy utiized as a resut of the proper job mix. It shows where the jobs are in memory, and what tapes and disk drives are used by each job. It aso shows information about printing and printers. It 1-14

19 Figure 1-5. Resource utiization in a mutiprogramming environment. 1-15

20 is difficut to obtain an optimum job mix using manua scheduing techniques, but it can be done. Most often, the soution to obtaining maximum throughput in a mutiprogramming environment (on a continuous 24-hour basis) is to use one of the more sophisticated automated scheduing packages. These packages have a of the considerations we have been discussing programmed into the software. Another piece of job-reated information to consider is job dependencies. Most AIS faciities process both singe-program jobs and mutiprogram systems. Exampes of mutiprogram systems are the suppy and 3-M systems. These systems consist of many programs that are normay executed as separate job steps within a system. Or, the programs may be processed as separate jobs that must be processed in a specific sequence. Therefore, you must know their proper sequence. It woud be fooish to execute a job that prints the output of an updated fie that had yet to be updated. It shoud be just as obvious if a job abnormay terminates that a jobs foowing it must be canceed and reschedued, aowing sufficient time for the terminated job to be rerun. Canceing and rescheduing dependent jobs may seem ike an easy task to perform. However, in reaity, it can become a compex and difficut operation. And finay, we have priorities and deadines to consider. Some scheduing methods pace primary importance on priority. Each job is assigned a priority, and the jobs are processed according to the highest-priority job that can be schedued based on avaiabe resources. Priority scheduing is often used in automated scheduing systems. Some scheduing methods pace primary importance on deadines, processing jobs according to the eariest deadine or sometimes atest deadine. When you prepare a schedue, remember to take into account job requirements that incude the foowing: * Data entry; Job setup and output contro functions; Computer processing time; Resource requirements; Operating environment; Job dependencies; Job priorities; and Deadines. Now that we have covered job-reated information, we wi discuss AIS faciity-reated areas and how these can affect your production schedue. You may reca that to prepare an effective schedue, you must know your AIS faciity s resources: how work comes into, fows through, and eaves your faciity; the capabiities and capacities of your system; and workoad demands on the system. As a scheduer, your goa is to match resource capacities (peope, paces, and things) to workoad demands whie satisfying user deadines and priorities. This is often difficut to do, especiay when resource capacities vary because of hardware faiures, specific shift requirements, personne on eave, and unpredictabe user demands. Your workoad can exceed capacity, which has a direct effect on service. Or, the capacity can exceed the workoad. This eaves AIS resources underutiized. So how do you reach a happy medium? you might ask. You do it by ensuring that the workoad demands put upon the AIS faciity s resources are baanced as much as possibe and that the tota resources avaiabe are kept as cose to the maximum capacity as possibe. The effective use of resources has a ot to do with how you prepare a schedue. However, other things affect scheduing effectiveness. One thing that disrupts schedues is the ate receipt of input from the users. This often resuts in a ot of hectic activity. Data entry, possiby I/O contro, and computer operations have to try to meet origina deadine commitments. If they cannot, you, as the scheduer, have to reschedue jobs, whie dissatisfied users compain because their jobs are not out on time. But you say the user has no right to compain? You are right. Often, the users do not reaize they are the cause of the deays. So what can you do? Educate them! Inform the users of the effects ate input submissions have on the schedue. They sometimes do not reaize how ong it takes to prepare their input. A jobs schedued shoud have an estabished input receipt time. When scheduing, incude in your schedue sufficient buffer time between schedued receipt time and actua due time. And ast, but not east, report scheduing deviations and their causes to your superiors. In this way, the process can be reviewed and improved. Something ese you have to consider in connection with scheduing effectiveness is your abiity to reschedue quicky. You must be prepared to make adjustments to schedues. You wi have to contend with power outages, corrective maintenance, deadines or priority changes, specia job requests, and so on. You must aso consider processing deays. Rejected transactions may have to be reentered before a priority 1-16

21 job can continue. An unreadabe tape or disk fie may have to be recreated. Errors in SCL statements in the job stream may have to be corrected. The most serious deays usuay resut from abnormay terminated jobs and hardware faiures. Regardess of what the situation may be, you must be prepared to readjust schedues as quicky as possibe with a minimum of disruption. PRODUCTION SCHEDULING The AIS faciity is tasked with the responsibiity of providing computer support to the command. This incudes support to medica/denta, suppy, administration, financia, and maintenance. Each of these areas wi have a subsystem coordinator assigned to work with you on monthy schedue requirements and on processing probems. You wi aso prepare daiy workoad schedues. MONTHLY PRODUCTION SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT As the AIS manager, you wi be responsibe for deveoping and distributing a monthy AIS operations schedue. You have used monthy schedues, but you may never have given much thought as to what it takes to deveop one. To deveop the monthy schedue, you must know the requirements of a the appication systems/jobs to be run during the month. Many production jobs are run on a cycic basis daiy; Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; weeky; monthy; quartery; semiannuay; or annuay. Be sure time is incuded for testing, panned maintenance, fie maintenance, and backup procedures. For systems with onine users, be sure to provide ampe capacity and time. Schedue Review Once you have deveoped the monthy schedue, you must ensure that the schedue is adequate and meets the requirements. To do this, you wi see that the proposed monthy production schedue is distributed to the appropriate subsystem coordinators for their review. Before the end of the current month, the subsystem coordinators are to return the monthy schedue with their concurrences or changes and recommendations back to you for screening. You wi screen it to ensure they have not overschedued any day, and that there wi be enough time for system backups and panned maintenance. The screening process shoud incude a review by the production contro coordinator, who ooks for any specific input/output requirements. For exampe, specia forms may have to be ordered. This must be done eary enough to have the forms when the job is to be run. After screening the changes and recommendations and making any adjustments needed, have a smooth copy of the schedue prepared and distributed to a subsystem coordinators and the department head before the beginning of the month to which the schedue appies. Figure 1-6 is an exampe of part of a monthy production schedue. Figure 1-6. Part of a monthy production schedue. 1-17