Step Properties

A Step consists of one or more Operations. You must create your Operations first and then order them into a Step if necessary. You configure related Operations into a Step in the order you want them to process. The Executive Server processes each Operation. When an Operation in a Step completes the Executive Server will then process the next Operation. Success or failure of the Operation can alter the flow of processing depending on the Operation configuration on the Operation Properties window.

The following pictures show the Step Properties window. You can click on "hot spot" areas in the pictures below to get detailed information about buttons, controls and fields.

Options

Enabled

Enabled indicates if the object will be processed by the Executive or Notification Servers. Normally all objects are Enabled (that is, checked or set to Yes). However, if you wish to configure an object and not have it processed you can clear the Enabled check box.

For example: If you configure a Schedule and clear the Enabled check box, the Executive Server will not process any of the objects that use the Schedule even if the individual objects are Enabled. If you disable an Operator, the Operator will not receive Notification messages.

Run once

If selected, the Operation, Step or Job will be removed from the SmartBatch 2009 database when the Executive Server has completed processing for the object. The provides a convenient way to create an object that will be used one time and then have SmartBatch 2009 automatically removed it from the database.

Parallel Mode

If checked (Step Properties window), all the Operations in the Step will be run at the time the Step is run. In other words, the Operations in the Step are run concurrently. The Step is complete when all of the Operations have completed. When Parallel mode is not checked (the default) the Operations in the Step are run the order they are listed in the "Operations in this Step" list. When the first Operation completes the second Operation is started and so on.

Example use of Parallel mode:

You may have a Job that is dependent on five Operations. The Job should not run until all five of the Operations have completed. An object-to-object Dependency can be created for the Job being dependent on the completion of the Step. All five Operations are started at the same time with the Step. When they have all completed the Step is complete and the Job can now start.

Operations in this Step

Provides a list of the Operations in the Step. By default, the Operations are processed by the Executive Server in the order listed. You can reorder the list with the up and down buttons.

See Parallel mode to optionally run the Operations in the Step concurrently.

	Parameter Groups
	A Parameter Group identifies a set of parameters that can be assigned to an Operation, Step or Job. If you don't want to use a specific Parameter Group and want all Parameters to be used for the object use a Parameter Group of <all>. Parameters are replaced with their value when processed by the Executive Server. Parameters are added to a Parameter Group on the Parameter Group Properties window. Parameters are maintained on the Parameter Properties window.

	Name
	Identifies the name of an object in the SmartBatch 2009 database. This can be up to 32 characters in any combination used to uniquely identify the object.

	Description
	The description associated with the object name. This can be up to 64 characters in any combination used to describe the object.

	Schedule
	Select the name of a Schedule that you want assigned to the object. The object will be run according the to Next Run Date and Time defined by the Schedule. Schedules are defined on the Schedule Update window.