Senior Operations Administrator at Illinois Mutual Life Insurance Company
Real User
Apr 2, 2020
When our mainframe process ends each night it sends out an email to certain users that the system is up, so that they can log on and do work on the mainframe at that point. We tried to use that email as a trigger for our ActiveBatch printing processes but it didn't work out too well. I believe it ended up being a bug that they're going to address in a future release. But at the same time, that was an easy fix. We were able to change that from an email trigger to a file trigger. Now we have the mainframe job, in addition to sending out that email, create four text files that will trigger our four batch cycles through ActiveBatch. That has worked out great for us. One thing I've noticed is that navigation can be difficult unless you are familiar with the structure that we have in place. If someone else had to look at our ActiveBatch console and find a job, they might not know where to find it. That being said, I have been using that search function a lot lately. That search function is definitely your friend.
Data Warehouse Operations Analyst at a leisure / travel company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Mar 31, 2020
We also use an Oracle trigger, although we've had inconsistent performance with the Oracle trigger. It had to do with the timing of the Oracle logs. The Oracle trigger function wouldn't work because Oracle had a lock on the archive log file. We have had a couple of cases where we had to remove that Oracle trigger function from our schedule. But we still use it for some cases. The thing I've noticed the most is the Help function. It's very difficult, at times, to find examples of how to do something. The Help function will explain what the tool does, but we're not a Windows shop at the data warehouse. Our data warehouse jobs actually run on Linux servers. Finding things for Linux-based solutions is not as easy as it is for Windows-based solutions. I would like to see more examples, and more non-Windows examples as well, in the Help.
Senior IT Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Mar 31, 2020
I can't get the cleaning up of logs to work consistently. Right now, we are not setup correctly, and maybe it is something that I have not effectively communicated to them. This has been my challenge.
Client Service Manager/Programmer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Real User
Mar 29, 2020
The only thing is that it does have a little bit of a learning curve because it is fairly complex. You have to learn how it does things. I don't know if it's any worse than any other tool would be, just because of the nature of what it does. Like many things, you learn how to do something initially and then, a year or two later, you might find a better way to do it and you have to adjust how you did it before. So the learning curve is the hardest part. Even then isn't bad, because any tool is going to have that type of learning curve. We're migrating to version 12 and I know they've made a lot of improvements that can help with navigating that application. I expect that would improve it.
Supervisor IT Operations at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Mar 29, 2020
It may require some weird programming of things. However, most of the time, we can solve the problem and set solutions in place, then it's carried forward to other jobs. I would really like to get into Active Directory stuff with it, but that creates a problem in our security audits, etc. We have to tread carefully down that road. Moving to version 12 will be a real challenge for us because we have to put in a whole new server, as we are on one now that is obsolete. Plus, when we build the whole thing out, we will need to: * Build out a test environment. * Go through every single one of the jobs, then test out everything on maneuvers. We will have to engage ActiveBatch in a contractual relationship to help us with this because it will be a huge project.
ActiveBatch by Redwood enhances efficiency with features like job scheduling, integration, and real-time monitoring. It supports diverse platforms, automates tasks, and offers a single-pane view with robust security.ActiveBatch streamlines automation by offering drag-and-drop functionality, pre-built job steps, and native integrations. Its customizable workflows and alert system aid in managing complex workloads like data processing and server monitoring across hybrid environments. While it...
When our mainframe process ends each night it sends out an email to certain users that the system is up, so that they can log on and do work on the mainframe at that point. We tried to use that email as a trigger for our ActiveBatch printing processes but it didn't work out too well. I believe it ended up being a bug that they're going to address in a future release. But at the same time, that was an easy fix. We were able to change that from an email trigger to a file trigger. Now we have the mainframe job, in addition to sending out that email, create four text files that will trigger our four batch cycles through ActiveBatch. That has worked out great for us. One thing I've noticed is that navigation can be difficult unless you are familiar with the structure that we have in place. If someone else had to look at our ActiveBatch console and find a job, they might not know where to find it. That being said, I have been using that search function a lot lately. That search function is definitely your friend.
It could be easier to provide dashboards on how many jobs are running at the same time; more monitoring.
We also use an Oracle trigger, although we've had inconsistent performance with the Oracle trigger. It had to do with the timing of the Oracle logs. The Oracle trigger function wouldn't work because Oracle had a lock on the archive log file. We have had a couple of cases where we had to remove that Oracle trigger function from our schedule. But we still use it for some cases. The thing I've noticed the most is the Help function. It's very difficult, at times, to find examples of how to do something. The Help function will explain what the tool does, but we're not a Windows shop at the data warehouse. Our data warehouse jobs actually run on Linux servers. Finding things for Linux-based solutions is not as easy as it is for Windows-based solutions. I would like to see more examples, and more non-Windows examples as well, in the Help.
I can't get the cleaning up of logs to work consistently. Right now, we are not setup correctly, and maybe it is something that I have not effectively communicated to them. This has been my challenge.
The only thing is that it does have a little bit of a learning curve because it is fairly complex. You have to learn how it does things. I don't know if it's any worse than any other tool would be, just because of the nature of what it does. Like many things, you learn how to do something initially and then, a year or two later, you might find a better way to do it and you have to adjust how you did it before. So the learning curve is the hardest part. Even then isn't bad, because any tool is going to have that type of learning curve. We're migrating to version 12 and I know they've made a lot of improvements that can help with navigating that application. I expect that would improve it.
It may require some weird programming of things. However, most of the time, we can solve the problem and set solutions in place, then it's carried forward to other jobs. I would really like to get into Active Directory stuff with it, but that creates a problem in our security audits, etc. We have to tread carefully down that road. Moving to version 12 will be a real challenge for us because we have to put in a whole new server, as we are on one now that is obsolete. Plus, when we build the whole thing out, we will need to: * Build out a test environment. * Go through every single one of the jobs, then test out everything on maneuvers. We will have to engage ActiveBatch in a contractual relationship to help us with this because it will be a huge project.