AIX Scheduling

Scheduling: Schedulinghas three types:

1. at
2. cron
3. batch

1. at: Runs commands at a later time.it is a one time scheduling command.
To Schedule Jobs to Run at a Later Time
at [ -c | -k | -s | -qQueue] [ -m ] [ -fFile ] { -tDate |Time [ Day ] [ Increment ] }

he atcommand reads from standard input the names of commands to be run at a later time and allows you to specify when the commands should be run.
The at command mails you all output from standard output and standard error for the scheduled commands, unless you redirect that output. It also writes the job number and the scheduled time to standard error.

When the at command is executed, it retains the current process environment. It does not retain open file descriptors, traps, and priority.To schedule a job to run at a later time, you must specify a time to start the job. You may specify the time by using either the -tDate flag or the Time, Day, and Increment parameters. At most, 60 jobs can be scheduled in any given run queue at the granularity of one per second. If more jobs than can be handled are submitted, for every job beyond 60, a file _at is created in /var/spool/cron/atjobs/ which can be safely deleted by the end user.

The Datevariable to the -t flag is specified using the following format:

[[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]

The digits in the Date variable are defined as follows:

CC	Specifies the first two digits of the year (the century).
YY	Specifies the second two digits of the year.
MM	Specifies the month of the year (01 through 12).
DD	Specifies the day of the month (01 through 31)./td>
hh	Specifies the hour of the day (00 through 23).
mm	Specifies the minute of the hour (00 through 59).
SS	Specifies the second of the minute (00 through 59).

#at	submits a job for cron to run at a specific time in the future (at -f /home/root/bb_at -t 2007122503)
#echo “” | at now	this starts in the background (and you can log off)
at now +2 mins
#banner hello > /dev/pts/0	(at now + 1 minute,at 5 pm Friday )
#/var/adm/cron/at.deny	allows any users except those listed in this file to use the at command.
#/var/adm/cron/at.allow	allows only those users listed in this file to use the at command (including root).
#at -l	Lists at jobs
#atq [user]	Views other user’s jobs (Only root can use this command.)
#at -r	Cancels an at job
#atrm job	Cancels an at job by job number
#atrm user	Cancels an at job by the user (root can use it for any user; users can cancel their jobs.)
#atrm	Cancels all at jobs belonging to the user invoking the atrm command

e.g
To schedule the command from the terminal, enter a command similar to one of the following:

If sysadmin is in your current directory, enter:
at 5 pm Friday
sysadmin

If sysadmin is in $HOME/bin/sysadmin, enter:
at now + 2 days
$HOME/bin/sysadmin

Note:
When entering a command name as the last item on the command line, a full path name must be given if the command is not in the current directory, and the at command will not accept any arguments.

2. Crontab:Submits, edits, lists, or removes cron jobs.
crontab [-e [UserName] | -l [UserName] | -r [UserName] | -v[UserName] | File ]

The crontab command submits, edits, lists, or removes cron jobs. A cron job is a command run by the cron daemon at regularly scheduled intervals. To submit a cron job, specify the crontab command with the -e flag. The crontabcommand invokes an editing session that allows you to create a crontab file. You create entries for each cron job in this file. Each entry must be in a form acceptable to the cron daemon. For information on creating entries, see The crontab File Entry Format.
Security

Only the root user or the owner of the crontab file can use UserName following the -e, -l,-r, and x-small;”>-v flags to edit, list, remove, or verify the crontab file of the specified user.

Controls on Using the crontab Command
/var/adm/cron/cron.allow           File containing users who allowed cron service

/var/adm/cron/cron.deny             File containing users denied cron service

/var/adm/cron/at.allow                File containing users who allowed at service

/var/adm/cron/at.deny                   File containing users denied at service

# crontab –e                                   This command will open Vi editor and after making changes user can save and quit.

# crontab –l                                       Command will list all the jobs scheduled.

# crontab –r                                 this command will remove all the cron jobs. You should be very careful in running these commands in production environment.

 The crontab File Entry Format

A crontab file contains entries for each cron job. Entries are separated by newline characters. Each crontab file entry contains six fields separated by spaces or tabs in the following form:
minute hour day_of_month month weekday command
These fields accept the following values:

minute	0 through 59
hour	0 through 23
day_of_month	1 through 31
month	1 through 12
weekday	0 through 6 for Sunday through Saturday
command	a shell command

e.gSep 1 12:30 AM is represented as:

30           00           1              9              *

• To write the time to the console every hour on the hour, enter:

0 * * * * echo The hour is `date` .
>/dev/console

• To run the calendar command at 6:30 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, enter:

30 6 * * 1,3,5 /usr/bin/calendar
3. batch: Runs jobs when the system load level permits.i.e system is average.

Batch

The batch command reads from standard input the names of commands to be run at a later time and runs the jobs when the system load level permits. The batch command mails you all output from standard output and standard error for the scheduled commands, unless you redirect that output. It also writes the job number and the scheduled time to standard error.

When thebatch command is executed, it retains variables in the shell environment, and the current directory; however, it does not retain open file descriptors, traps, and priority.

The batch command is equivalent to entering the at -q b -m now command. The -q b flag specifies the at queue for batch jobs.

Examples

To run a job when the system load permits, enter:
batch <<!
longjob
!This example shows the use of a “Here Document” to send standard input to the batch command.

Files

/usr/bin/batch	Contains the batchcommand.
/bin/batch	Symbolic link to the batch command.
/var/adm/cron	Indicates the main crondaemon directory.
/var/spool/cron/atjobs	Indicates the spool area.