Scheduling Jobs

Jobs allow you to schedule application protection and audits at the most convenient times for you (or for your users). Jobs also allow you to batch protect and audit.

Diagnostics uses the Windows Task Scheduler to schedule jobs. Task Scheduler starts each time you start Windows, and runs in the background. Task Scheduler is part of Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP. On Windows 95 and NT 4.0 SP3+, Task Scheduler is an Internet Explorer component that you can install by using the Add/Remove Programs tool in Control Panel.

Defining Jobs

You can define jobs to protect and audit applications on any computer with a licensed version of Diagnostics Agent. Jobs can run on a single computer, some computers, all the computers in a domain, or all computers in the network. For example, you can use a job to protect an application on every agent-licensed computer.

To define a job:

On the Action menu, click New and then click Jobs.

In the box beside the task icon

, type a name for the job.

In the Command list, click Protect or Audit.

In the Select Machines box, expand the Microsoft Windows Network and select the check boxes for the computers you want to protect.

To protect all PCs on all domains of the network, select the Microsoft Windows Network check box. To protect all computers on a given domain, select the domain check box.

In the Select Products box, select the check boxes for the products you want to protect.

In the Job view toolbar, click

to save the job.

To run the job, click

in the Job view toolbar.

To schedule the job, click Scheduler (see Scheduling Jobs).

The Select Machines box lists only the computers with a licensed version of Diagnostics Agent.

If all PCs in a domain are selected, the job runs on all agent-licensed PCs in the domain, which may not match the PCs selected when the job was defined. Just before it runs, the job dynamically finds all agent-licensed computers in the domain. Similarly, if all domains in a network are selected, the job runs on all agent-licensed PCs in the domain, and the job dynamically finds the agent-licensed PCs.

If you select a specific set of PCs, the job only runs on those PCs with an agent license.

Running Jobs

You can run jobs manually without scheduling them. This is handy for doing batch protects of applications on many machines when you don’t want to repeat the protection at regular intervals. Scheduled tasks can be run manually as well.

To run a job:

In the Job view toolbar, click

Checking the Status of Jobs

To check the status of a job:

In the console tree, expand Jobs and then expand the job definition. The starting date and time of each job is listed under the job definition.

Job Definition in the Console Tree

Click a job to display the Job Status view.

The Job Status view displays the status of the commands executed on each machine.

To see more details for a specific command:

For example, you may want to know why a Protect command failed on a certain computer.

To refresh the display:

Scheduling Jobs

You can schedule a job to run daily, weekly, or monthly, and change the schedule for a task.

To schedule a job:

If the job you want to schedule is not already open, expand Jobs in the console tree and click the job you want to schedule.

In the Job view, click Scheduler.

To remove the schedule for a job:

If the job you want to schedule is not already open, expand Jobs in the console tree and click the job you want to schedule.

In the Job view, click Remove Schedule.

A protected computer stores a local copy of the profile. If the version of the profile stored on the Support Site is more recent, then Always use latest profile revision determines which profile an Audit command uses.


To	Do this
Use the most recent version of the profile on the Support Site	Select the Always use latest profile revision check box.
Use the version of the profile stored on the protected computer.	Click to clear the Always use latest profile revision check box.