Understanding special resources

You can use special resources to represent any type of limited resource, such as tape drives, communication lines, or a database. The administrator defines resources using the SPECIAL RESOURCE DEFINITION panel. The SPECIAL RESOURCE DEFINITION panel updates the resource database, which has these details of each resource:
Name
The resource name. It can be up to 44 characters.
Availability
Available (Y) or not available (N).
Connected workstations
A list of the workstations where operations can allocate the resource.
Quantity
It can be from 1 to 999999.
Used for
Specifies how HCL Workload Automation for Z is to use the special resource. Allowed values are:
P
Planning
C
Control
B
Both control and planning
N
Neither control nor planning
On-error action
Specifies the action to take if the operation that allocates this resource ends in error (and does not have an overriding keep-on-error specification in the operation definition). Possible values are:
F
Free all
FX
Free exclusively-held resources
FS
Free shared resources
K
Keep all
HCL Workload Automation for Z uses the attribute specified at operation level first. If this is blank, it uses the attribute specified in the resource database. If this is also blank, it uses the ONERROR keyword of the RESOPTS statement.
On Complete
Specifies the value to which the global availability is reset after the operation that uses the resource completes. It can be one of the following:
Y
Sets the global availability to Yes.
N
Sets the global availability to No.
R
Sets the global availability to blank.
Blank
Uses the system default, according to the following order:
  1. The On Complete value set at operation definition level, if not blank.
  2. The On Complete value set at special resource definition level, if not blank.
  3. The ONCOMPLETE or DYNONCOMPLETE keyword value, respectively set for the not dynamically added resources or the dynamically added resources, in all the other cases.
Max Usage Limit
Specifies after how many allocations of the special resource, its availability is reset according to the value set for Max Usage Type. An internal usage counter is increased each time an operation allocates the resource. When the internal counter reaches the Max Usage Limit value, the global availability is reset to the value specified with Max Usage Type.

The default value is 0, meaning that no usage counter check is done.

Max Usage Type
Specifies the value to which the global availability is reset when the Max Usage Limit is reached. This value is valid only if the Max Usage Limit is different from 0. Possible values are:
Y
Sets the global availability to Yes.
N
Sets the global availability to No.
R
Sets the global availability to blank.

The quantity, availability, and list of workstations can vary with time. The administrator can associate different intervals with the resource.

The administrator also specifies, for each operation, the special resources that it uses: how (shared or exclusive), how many (quantity), and the on-error attribute.

The long-term plan is built without taking the special resources into account, but when you extend the current plan, it schedules operations taking account of all the special resources that are used for planning though the daily planning program does not take manually changed availability, quantity, and deviation into account. This is because they are usually assumed to be temporary changes and the values will be reset to the normal values when, for example, an engineer has repaired a tape unit.

If a special resource is needed in the current plan, HCL Workload Automation for Z copies the details from the RD database and stores them in the current plan extension data set. These details include the information from the resource database, but also have these overriding (global) fields:
Quantity
1 through 999999 or blank. If you specify a quantity, this overrides the scheduled quantity from the database.
Availability
Y or N or blank. If you specify an availability, this overrides the scheduled availability from the database.
Deviation
-999999 through 999999 or blank. You use the deviation to make a temporary alteration to the scheduled quantity.

You can change the quantity and availability of a special resource, and the connected workstations, using the Special Resource Monitor, which is described in this chapter. You might need to make a resource unavailable (to prevent the submission of all jobs needing a database, if some corruption is suspected), alter the quantity by specifying a deviation (if a tape drive is broken), or change the list of connected workstations (to include a workstation that will take over processing from the normal one).

Other ways of changing resource attributes are:
EQQUSIN subroutine
See Customization and Tuning.
SRSTAT command
See SRSTAT.

If the availability of a resource is known to the Resource Object Data Manager (RODM), HCL Workload Automation for Z can, by subscribing to RODM for that resource, be notified automatically of any changes. This is the best alternative where RODM is installed.

Changes to special resources using any of these methods override the scheduled quantity and availability, but you can at any time reset the values to those specified for the current interval.

These are some examples of how you can use the Monitor:
  • Browse the special resources in the current plan, and see how they are allocated.
  • Deallocate resources from an operation that is running
  • Change the resource requirements of an operation that has not yet run
  • See what special resource an operation is waiting for, if its extended status is X (for example, status RX), and see what operations are using it