There are two components to the Argent Job Scheduling product, namely the actual scheduler and the queue engine.

Within the Argent Job Scheduler product, these are respectively referred to as the “Argent Scheduler” and the “Argent Queue Engine”; in shorthand notation:

Argent Job Scheduler = Argent Scheduler + Argent Queue Engine

The scheduler schedules the execution of the jobs on the various queue engines; the queue engines are where the jobs are actually run. One central scheduler can connect and manage the jobs on thousands of queue engines.

When the product is initially installed, the scheduler and the queue engine are both installed on the same machine. Conceptually, there is no difference between this simple architecture and the real-world version where the central job scheduler is on one server and there are dozens, or hundreds, of queue engines, each sitting on its own server around the world.

Each of the two components – the scheduler and the queue engine – each consist of two parts, namely the service and the GUI. The service, as expected, does the actual heavy lifting of doing the work – scheduling and running the jobs, while the GUI is the reader and editor of the control information, such as the jobs, macros, limits, etc.

The GUI is available in two forms – the classic GUI and the web interface.

Here’s a summary of the components:

Scheduling Engine

This background service submits jobs to one or more Argent Queue Engines. It does not run these jobs – jobs are run by the Argent Queue Engines. The Argent Scheduler connects to the Argent Queue Engines, and when the time comes for the jobs to run the Argent Scheduler submits the jobs to the appropriate Argent Queue Engines. The Argent Scheduler’s role is to keep track of schedule and ensure jobs run when and where they should. The Scheduling Engine is a Windows-based server.

Queue Engine

This background service is installed on all servers where jobs run – the Argent Queue Engine runs the actual jobs, the Argent Scheduler submits the jobs to one or more Argent Queue Engines for execution. A queue engine can be deployed on Windows, as well as Linux, all the common UNIX variants, and iSeries servers.

Scheduling GUI

The Job Control Panel of the Argent Scheduler enables Customers to view and – when granted the appropriate rights – change the jobs templates, macros, alerts, etc.

Queue Engine GUI

The Argent Queue Engine GUI enables Customers to view and – when granted the appropriate rights – change specific jobs that have already been submitted to an Argent Queue Engine, one Argent Queue Engine at a time.

Screen Navigation – Yellow On Blue Tags, Top Right

All screens in the Argent Job Scheduler are simple to use and easy to navigate. To help describe the screens there is a small tag in the top right corner of each screen; related screens have related screen tags; the web interfaces uses lower case letters, while the GUIs use upper case.

Below is an example of the screen tags in the queue properties of the Argent Queue Engine.