FAQ

What is Control-M?

CONTROL-M is a business integrated scheduling product that focuses on the production

environment's business applications and platforms. In simple terms "It is a scheduling

software like many others (autosys, cron, OPC..etc) using which we can schedule our task

to run them automatically without manual intervention."

What are the default port numbers from Server to Agent and Agent to Server?

o CONTROL-M/Server and CONTROL-M/Agent communicate by means of two TCP/IP

ports. They are "Server-to-Agent Port" and "Agent-to-Server Port". The default

"Server-to-Agent Port Number" is 7006 and "Agent-to-Server Port Number" is 7005.

Normally these values will be in the range of 1025 to 65535[inclusive].

What are Control M Components?

o CONTROL-M/Enterprise Manager (CONTROL-M/EM)

o CONTROL-M/Servers

o CONTROL-M/Agents and Remote hosts

o Control Modules

Explain Architecture of Control M?

o Control-M is a 3 tier architecture. Here you have to explain about the components

of Control-M (EM, Server and Agents).

What is Datacenter?

o Control-M datacenter is comprised of Control-M/Server, Database, and Control-

M/Agents.

o If you see the diagram here, you can observe 2 datacenters in that picture.

o Normally we will be having different datacenters for Test, Dev, Prod.. etc. in some

organizations for few critical applications they may maintain a different

datacenter.

o Datacenter design is completely depend upon the organizations design plan for

scheduling solution.

What are The Control-M Accessories?

o Control-M/Enterprise Manager GUI (EM/GUI or ECS GUI), Gateways, Global Alert

Server (GAS), Global Condition Server (GCS) and Control-M GUI Server.

o It is important to understand what each of these components does and its place in

the Control-M architecture.

What is GAS?

o Expansion of GAS is Global Alert Server. This is one of the components of Control-M

EM Server.

o This will be used to store all the alerts generated from datacenters under the

Control-M EM.

What is GCS?

o Expansion of GCS is Global Condition Server. This is also one of the components of

Control-M EM Server.

o This will be used to store all the conditions generated from datacenters under the

Control-M EM.

What is New Day Process(NDP)?

o At a set time each day (defined during installation as the start of day at the site),

CONTROL-M performs New Day processing, during which:

CONTROL-M performs a number of maintenance and cleanup functions that

the operator would otherwise have to perform manually.

Job scheduling definitions are selected from the scheduling tables (based

on their basic scheduling criteria) and are placed in the Active Jobs file.

These jobs can then be submitted and tracked by the CONTROL-M monitor.

During New Day processing, jobs that have ended OK or whose retention

period has expired according to job scheduling definition parameters are

deleted from the Active Jobs file.

o In simple terms "this loads all of the jobs that Control-M knows should run that day.

Control-M does not necessarily know all of the jobs to run. it only knows the ones

scheduled to run that day. In process of cleanup Control-M will clear all the jobs

except the jobs which are in Hold and Jobs which are having MAXWAIT".

o Note: The jobs which were ended NOTOK will be retained for one day.

What is Viewpoint?

o Criteria that determine which jobs in the Active Jobs file are loaded into the

database (collection), which jobs are displayed (filter), and how they are displayed

(hierarchy) in the CONTROL-M/EM window.

What is Archived Viewpoint?

o This is the place Where you can see historical data. In this you can see 'N' no.of

days viewpoints which were completed. The 'N' days will be set in Control-M Server

settings.

How will you Order or Load the jobs?

o Option 1: Use Tools -> Order / Force Option.

o Option 2: Using Control-M Desktops Scheduling Table Manager.

o Option 3: In Desktop, Open job properties and use Order.

Difference between Order and Force

o Order will check with the job scheduling criteria and brings into AJF only If the

scheduling criteria met.

o Force will ignore the scheduling criteria and bring the job(s) to AJF

What is meant by Control-M Documentation?

o It is the escalation procedure to use in case of any event occurs. Event may be Job

Failure, Long Running, Not started by a particular time or Not completed by a

specified time.

What is “Owner” field denotes in Control-M job properties?

o This is the actual ID which will be used to execute the job in the given node-id.

o Simple terms, The Owner should have permissions to execute the job at the target

machine.

What is Filewatcher?

o It is an utility provided by BMC to watch for a File Event to occur. It might be a File

Create, Update or Delete.

o For Eg: If I want to start a job based on a File Created at a particular location, I'll

setup a Filewatcher job to look for that particular file and this FileWatcher job will

finished OK when It finds the file. Once this job finished I'll run the NEXT job.

o There will be different parameters which we will be using to setup a FileWatcher

job.

How will you use Filewatcher?

o We can use this in 2 types.

o Method 1: Using CTMFW Utility. This should be defined in Command field of a Job.

o Method 2: We can use FileWatcher plug-in given by BMC. You have to import the

XML file given by BMC to use this.

Explain Advance File Transfer (AFT)

o AFT is another plug-in (application form) given by BMC.

o Using this we can transfer File(s) from one location (Source) to another location

(Destination).

o To use this, AFT should be setup in Agent Configuration.

What is Job Type?

o It is the type of job which you are going to define.

o Eg: OS, File Watcher, AFT, FTP, SAP, WINDOWS, Web Service..etc.

o Normally we'll select this option in the job properties window, on top of properties

tabs.

What is a Template?

o Template is nothing but a sample, which will contain certain default values in job

properties.

o You can also define a template for later use.

o For example in your environment you'll be defining jobs with most common values

then you can define that and save as a Template. Once you have saved then you

can use this whenever you needed in future.

What are the TASK Types?

o There are 4 TASK types available in Control-M. They are Job, Command, Dummy

and Detached.

o Job is to execute a programme.

o Command to execute any command at the node.

o Dummy job does nothing. but we'll use this in certain scenarios to design some

batches.

o Detached will be used to execute ".EXE" files. You can also use Command to

execute ".EXE" files but the job will FAIL with "FORK FAILURE" error.

Explain color coding in Control-M?

o In Control-M you can find the status of the job based on the color of the job.

o There are 7 colors used in Control-M to denote job status.

o GREEN - Job Ended OK

o RED - JOB FAILED / Ended NOT OK

o GREY - Job in WAITING Status

o BLUE - Waiting for RESOURCE

o PINK - WAIT for USER Conformation

o WHITE - UNKNOWN Status

o YELLOW - Job is in EXECUTION

What are the default/basic Properties of a Control M job?

o we have 8 default tabs for any job in Control-M.

o General, Scheduling, Execution, Conditions, Resources, Set, Steps and PostProc

o In Control-M/EM (AJF) Scheduling tab will be replaced by ACTIVE tab.

o Apart from these based on the job type we'll be getting additional tabs.

What is Retro option?

o If you select this "Retro" option in Scheduling tab, job can be scheduled to run even

after actual scheduling date has been passed.

o Ex: If a job scheduled to run on 20th of every month, but on 20th the Control-M

Server is down, and Came up on 21st or later, then while performing the New day

Process Control-M will check for this option and bring the job into AJF though the

job scheduled date has been crossed.

What is Forecast?

o Additional feature control-m has to foresee the job schedule.

o You can see this option in 'Scheduling' tab of the job properties dialog box. When

you click on this option it will show you next 12 months schedule of the job based

on the options you have specified in this tab.

o Using this you can make sure your scheduling criteria is perfect as per the user

request.

What is meant by Agent or Node? Is there any difference?

o It is the target system where the control-m job is going to execute.

o Agent or Node both is same.

Difference between Node and Node Group?

o Node is a Single Agent whereas Node Group is a collection of agents (more than 1

agent).

What is “wait for confirmation”? What is the use of it?

o It is similar to a HOLD but the job won't be in Held Status.

o Sometimes if any manual confirmation is required before executing a job, we'll use

"Wait for confirmation" in Execution tab.

o If you select this option, the job will turn in "PINK" color.

o You have to Right click and "Confirm" the job to run (it may go in Wait status, if it

has any other prerequisite conditions or time dependency)

What is MAXWAIT?

o Maximum number of days that the job can wait to be executed after its original

scheduling date has passed.

How many types of conditions you use in Control-M?

o 2 types. Prerequisite Conditions and Global Conditions

o Prerequisite Conditions scope will be in the same server/datacenter

o Global Conditions scope will be across servers/datacenters

What are Global Conditions?

o If you would like to make dependency across the datacenter, then you have to use

Global Conditions.

o These Global Conditions needs to be defined using Tools -> Global Conditions

option.

Types of Conditions in Condition Tab?

o 2 types. In Condition and Out Condition.

o In Conditions are of Predecessor job(s)

o Out Conditions are for Successor job(s)

What are resources? And how many types of resources are available in Control-

M?

o Resources will be used to make mutual exclusive jobs (jobs not to run at the same

time).

o There are 2 types or resources.

o 1 - Quantitative Resources and 2 - Control Resources

Explain Control and Quantitative Resources?

o Control Resources are the ones which you can specify the type of control the jobs

needs (Exclusive or Shared). They are often used to represent files, or database

tables.

o Quantitative Resources are resource definitions for which you specify in

CONTROL-M/EM an overall quantity available to the CONTROL-M, and the amount

required by the job in the Resource tab. Examples of quantitative resources you

might define are CPU (%), RAM (MB), Hard Disk (GB), and Tape Drives (#).

Use of Set Tab?

o It will be used to define variables to pass as parameters to the jobs.

What do you mean by Auto-Edit variable?

o AutoEdit variables are resolved at time of job submission, during job execution, or

immediately following job execution (depending on the variable).

o These can be used to send as parameters to jobs.

What is PostProc tab?

o This tab is used to send Alerts or Shouts to GAS or Shout Destinations (Mail or Page

or Message) based on the event defined.

o Possible events are on Job ended "OK" or "NOT OK" or "Rerun" or "Not Submitted

on time" or "Not Completed On time" or "Executing for Long time".

What is COMPSTAT?

o It is a Control-M variable which will holds the job Return Code of the current run.

What is Maybe Condition?

o If you would like to add a In Condition only if the predecessor job exist else ignore

condition, then you have to use May Be Condition.

o It is nothing but a Conditional Dependency.

o Ex: If JOB-B is depending on JOB-A, but JOB-B have to wait on ONLY when JOB-A is

in AJF. In this case we'll give Out Condition of JOB-A as #-JOB-A-OK and in

Condition of JOB-B as #-JOB-A-OK.

o If you add #- before the condition name that will be taken into account only when

the job is in AJF.