Control-M
BMC's batch scheduling product, which decides when each job runs based on times, dependencies and conditions.
Also written BMC Control-M, Control-M for z/OS, CTM, IOA
Control-M is a workload automation product from BMC. It is one of the most widely used batch schedulers on the mainframe, and it also schedules work on other platforms, so one tool can run a batch flow that crosses the mainframe and distributed systems.
Each job is defined once, with the rules for when it may run: the days it runs, using calendars; the time window; the jobs or files it must wait for; and what to do when it ends. Dependencies are expressed with conditions: a job finishing successfully adds a condition, and other jobs wait for that condition before they start.
On the mainframe, Control-M runs with a set of ISPF screens, often called IOA from the name of its underlying platform, where staff can see the day's jobs, their status, and hold, release, rerun or change them. There is also a graphical interface for the whole flow.
Production control teams spend much of their day in Control-M. If you work in support, learning to read a job's history and conditions in it is as useful as reading the job's output.
Where can I learn this hands-on?
Right here, at ZedBank. You take a junior job at a simulated bank and learn each part of the work by doing it, with Zed beside you. There's nothing to install.
Start at ZedBankRelated
- Batch schedulerSoftware that submits production jobs automatically in the right order, at the right time, based on what has already succeeded.
- Job dependencyA rule that a job must wait for something else first, usually another job finishing successfully.
- Batch windowThe period, usually overnight, in which batch work has to finish before the business needs the systems back.
- Critical pathThe chain of dependent batch jobs that decides when the whole batch run finishes; any delay on it delays the finish.
- RerunRunning a job again after it failed or produced wrong results, either from the beginning or from a chosen step.
- IBM Z Workload SchedulerIBM's batch scheduler for z/OS, formerly Tivoli Workload Scheduler for z/OS and, before that, OPC.