Job Ordering and Job Forcing

In the previous chapter, you ordered IDJOB1 and IDJOB2 by requesting the O (Order) option for those jobs in the Job List screen. The requested job orders were placed in the active environment, and you saw those job orders listed in the Active Environment screen.

An ordered job is placed in the active environment only if its Basic scheduling criteria are satisfied when the job is ordered, that is, only if the job should otherwise be ordered for that day. This was the case when you ordered IDJOB1 and IDJOB2, because both jobs had a DAYS value of ALL and a Y (Yes) value for every month, which means that the Basic scheduling criteria of the job are satisfied every single day of the year.

In this last exercise, you made IDJOB3 eligible for ordering on the last Friday of each month. If you try to order the job on any other day, it will not be placed in the active environment. There is an option, however, that enables you to force the job into the active environment even when its Basic Scheduling criteria are not satisfied. This is the F (Force) option that is shown at the bottom of the Job List screen.

The following procedure explains how to force the scheduling of IDJOB3. You should be aware that you do not force IDJOB4, because IDJOB4 is a conditional job that is forced by a DO FORCEJOB statement when job IDJOB3 fails with a condition code of C0008 or above.

1. Enter option F (Force) for IDJOB3, as shown in Job List Screen.
2. If a Confirmation window is displayed, confirm the forcing of the job.

   The Message window now displays a confirmation of the job forcing.

3. Exit the Message window.

   The Job List screen is again displayed.

   You can now display the Active Environment screen and see the results of the forced scheduling of IDJOB3.

4. Enter =3 in the COMMAND field of the Job List screen.

   The Active Environment screen is displayed. IDJOB3 is in Wait Schedule status. This means that the Runtime Scheduling criteria of the job are not satisfied.

5. Ensure that filter IDGS is displayed. If it does not appear in the Filter field, enter SHOW IDGS in the COMMAND field.
6. If the Option line is not displayed at the bottom of the screen, enter OPT in the COMMAND field to display the options.

Through a combination of screens, you can determine why the job is in a Wait Schedule status and correct the problems so that the job is submitted. Some of those screens are displayed and explained in the following sections.