How does the Scheduler keep track of jobs?

The scheduler submits jobs to the operating system. The code supplied by the scheduler in the operating system (in the case of a z/OS® tracker, this code is in JES and System Management Facilities [SMF] exits) tells HCL Workload Automation for Z when the jobs have finished and also how they have finished (HCL Workload Automation for Z looks at abend and return codes and can also look for certain error messages in the job log that do not always give rise to nonzero return codes).

The scheduler calculates the latest time that a job can be started before it is in danger of missing its deadline. The scheduler continually adjusts its estimate of how long a job takes, taking the actual run times into account.

When a job or other operation is running late, HCL Workload Automation for Z can issue alerts. An alert can be a message to the operator console, but it can also trigger other events.