News

ActiveBatch 9 Improves Job Scheduling for IBM AS/400 and System Center Configuration Manager

Eliminate custom scripts and platform-specific tools.

• By Christa Ayer
• 02/26/2014

A new service pack for ActiveBatch 9 adds support for two major platforms: IBM AS/400 and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. ActiveBatch is a cross-platform workload automation and job scheduling tool that provides a central dashboard, integrated jobs library, and event-based architecture. The additions to ActiveBatch 9 SP3 remove the need to rely on scripting to automate SCCM client management and desktop deployment processes, or for cross-platform scheduling within data centers that include AS/400.

The ActiveBatch Extension for SCCM offers an integrated jobs library for automating SCCM processes. Admins can use the tool to automate the provisioning of VMs (i.e., employee onboarding), or have SCCM create a new software package, deploy it to a VM, and send the user a SCCM Deployment to notify them the installation is complete.

The new ActiveBatch execution agent provides AS/400 users with a cross-platform enterprise scheduler that leverages the AS/400 iSeries Advanced Job Scheduler and adds ActiveBatch's automation and management capabilities. Admins get an advanced date/time scheduling and event automation framework, as well as job audit and revision control. Users can execute jobs based on e-mail, file, or Web service triggers, or trigger completions based on job success, failure, or manual termination. Moreover, administrators can monitor AS/400 jobs and view log files from within the ActiveBatch console, or configure the platform to issue alerts when issues arise.