JOBS REQUIRING SCHEDULING

Introduction
Scheduling Rules

Introduction

This documentation outlines conditions which dictate that a job be scheduled in order to run on the USC computer system.  This documentation was produced by the Academic Research and Data Center of USC.  Questions about its content should be referred to a consultant at 777-6865.

Scheduling Rules

Any batch job that satisfies at least one of the following conditions must be scheduled:

1. Estimated CPU time greater than 60 minutes (as shown in JCL as TIME=(MM,SS)).
2. Estimated CPU time greater than 20 minutes, and estimated REGION greater than 2048K in any step (as shown in JCL as REGION=NNNK).
3. Estimated REGION greater than 4096K in any step.
4. Any step requires more than two concurrent round tapes.
5. Any step requires more than three concurrent cartridge tapes.

To schedule a job, call a consultant at 777-6865 prior to job submission and tell the receptionist that you need to schedule a job.  You will need to supply the jobname and the TIME and the REGION specified on the job.  Other information, such as the amount of temporary disk space required or the number of tapes being accessed, may also be pertinent.

While scheduling a job does not guarantee that the job will run within any specific time frame, it does alert Operations staff that the scheduled job is awaiting execution.  Given the information provided on the scheduling form, Operations staff must gauge the total system impact of the job, and submit it for execution at the earliest possible opportunity for successful completion.  Failure to schedule jobs which fall into the categories described above may result in job cancellation if required resources are not readily available.  Note: it is also recommended that any job expected to remain in execution (not merely awaiting execution) for over four hours be made restartable or be provided a checkpointing capability.