Prerequisite Condition Concept

The prerequisite condition concept is one of the fundamentals of the INCONTROL production environment. A prerequisite condition is a user-defined descriptive name given to a situation, event, or condition.

Prerequisite conditions are either created by previous jobs, created by Control-V missions, or created manually via the Online facility. A job’s reports is decollated or migrated only when all prerequisite conditions defined as necessary for the execution of the mission exist.

The following are examples of prerequisite conditions:

Table 3 Prerequisite Condition Examples

IMS-ACTIVE	an ongoing situation
BALANCE-CHECKED	completion of a manual operation
INVENTORY-REPORT-DECOLLATED	an event
MIGRATION-ALLOWED	an ongoing situation
INVENTORY-DATA-SET-CREATED	creation of a dataset

A list of prerequisite conditions can be specified in the mission definition parameters. Control-V allows mission execution only if all the prerequisite conditions exist. For example, a printing mission executes only when all prerequisite decollating jobs have run successfully.

Figure 6 Decollating Jobs Prerequisite Conditions Example

Prerequisite conditions can be used to create any kind of dependency (for example, mission to mission, mission to job, manual operations, creation of a dataset).

Prerequisite conditions can be added or deleted in many ways:

By using the Online facility
By specifications in the mission’s definition parameters
By an application program or a job step using a supplied routine or utility
By the Control-M Production Control System

The Online facility is used to add conditions like AR-BALANCED. These prerequisite conditions represent manual operations. They can be added by any authorized user.

The most common way of adding or deleting a condition is by defining it in the mission definition parameters. A list of prerequisite conditions to be added or deleted when the mission finishes OK can be specified by the user. For example, it can be a simple condition like EJ18FOR-DECOLLATED, or it can represent a more complex situation like SALARY-FINISHED.

Prerequisite conditions can also be used as a trigger for messages; for example, the user can tell Control-V to send a highlighted, un-rollable message to the operator console whenever the condition CHECK-NOT-BALANCED exists.

Prerequisite conditions are strictly under the user’s control. Any number of conditions, and therefore any number of dependencies, can be created. Prerequisite conditions can be used for any purpose.

Parent Topic

Introduction