1

Copyright 2008 UC4 Software GmbH (UC4), all rights reserved. The materials in this publication are protected by copyright and/or other intellectual property laws. Any unauthorized use of the materials in this publication can result in an infringement of these laws. Unless expressly permitted, the copying of information or documents from this publication, in any form, without the prior written permission of UC4 is prohibited.

Conversion to UC4 Operations Manager

Introduction

UC4 Workload Automation Suite is IT process automation software that can be used to integrate and accelerate enterprise workload across your existing IT landscape. The suite includes two modules - UC4 Operations Manager and UC4 Applications Manager. UC4 Operations Manager is designed to address the most complex data center automation needs while UC4 Applications Manager delivers advanced process management and integration of business application workload. Each module offers unique functionality specific to the environment in which it is used.

This document describes the proven Rapid Results Conversion process employed by UC4 Software to ensure a managed risk and smooth transition from your existing scheduling tools to UC4 Operations Manager.

From Miracles to Structured, Centralized Processing.................2

Process .............................................................................2

Automated Migration Routines ..............................................4

Integration into System Landscape........................................4

Sample Project Plan ............................................................4

Conclusion.........................................................................5

2

The motives to implement UC4 Operations Manager are many. There are, however, existing applications at work in any existing data center. If it isnt broke, dont fix it! an axiom that often rules the data center mind-set, forgetting that you have to fix many routine issues on a daily basis within your existing legacy systems causing a substantial manual workload.

From Miracles to Structured, Centralized Processing Data centers have transformed dramatically. Business and technology requirements are changing rapidly, catalyzing the need to replace legacy job schedulers with limited application and platform support, restricted scalability or missing 24x7 operations, by a sophisticated standard solution such as UC4 Operations Manager.

However, migrating from legacy schedulers like CA-7, Control-M, OPC/TWS etc., often seems to be too challenging and undertaking, so compromises are made to retain legacy systems. For enterprises wishing to convert to UC4 Operations Manager a variety of solutions are available. Conversion routines exist for almost any combination of systems and scheduling tools. Our specialists from the UC4 Services Organization perform any possible permutation of conversion according to your individual needs.

Process The time needed for converting legacy systems greatly depends on the individual system configuration. Once detailed information regarding the customers existing scheduling systems has been gathered and analyzed, the UC4 Services Organization builds a project plan and creates a conversion proposal.

The conversion itself is performed as a team effort between the UC4 Services Organization and the customer. The conversion process is similar for all system and scheduling solutions and comprises five key phases:

Conversion workshop Scheduler definition analysis Rapid results conversion UC4 Operations Manager deployment

strategy workshop

Ongoing conversion support During conversion it is very important to keep the production processes stable. Therefore conversions are usually performed in modular steps. The job numbers converted in each step depend on the systems overall size. Smaller systems can be converted all at once, but for larger systems with thousands of jobs a successful conversion is a more modular step-by-step process.

Phase I: CONVERSION Workshop

The conversion workshop ensures the success of a conversion project and covers the following topics:

Roles and responsibilities of team members

Knowledge of old scheduling environment (production control, operator, administrator, programming personnel, security administrator)

Knowledge of UC4 (standards and rules, conversion rules)

Scheduler related assessment

Identify typical flows Identify interfaces List all scheduler related products Identify features to automate the script Identify manual interventions Identify the change management Identify which jobs are obsolete (have never run, not run since certain date etc)

Figure 1: Replacing legacy schedulers with one enterprise-wide workload automation solution.

3

Conversion strategy

Define UC4 standards, such as naming conventions, application/folder structure 1:1 conversion or re-design during conversion Identify options for conversion routine Identify conversion packages / pilot package Best practice for the interface between two schedulers in production First draft of project schedule Conversion proposal

Phase II: Scheduler Definiton Analysis (Offsite)

Definitions are not simply copied into the UC4 system. Rather, they are analyzed to determine the optimal method for the conversion. The phase starts with analysis of the current scheduling environment, which is accomplished by using standard reports from the existing scheduling product. To eliminate manual conversion work, the conversion routine will be enhanced and adjusted in accordance with the customers standards and needs. A list of suggestion to solve all cases where the automatic conversion process does not cover all scheduling definitions will be created. The result of the phase will determine the time and scope of the conversion project.

Phase III: Rapid Results CONVERSION

For large conversions it is recommended to start with a pilot conversion. The amount of jobs in the pilot should be limited and should reflect the typical way of working with the existing scheduler.

The pilot has following goals:

Proof of conversion tool Conversion knowledge transfer

o Conversion methodology o Practical application

Creation of any newly required objects, such as Alerts or Events

Simulation of converted jobs o Run dummy jobs and compare

result with the old scheduler

Testing of converted jobs o Abend procedures o Notifications o File triggers o Interface to old scheduler o Newly implemented UC4 features

Creation of interfaces / custom exits Creation of custom reports Promotion of migrated jobs (if applicable)

One of the key goals throughout this phase is the transfer of knowledge to the customers personnel, which is critical to a successful conversion.

Phase IV: UC4 Operations Manager Deployment Strategy Workshop

This workshop covers the following topics:

Review of Rapid Results Conversion Conversion plan for remaining jobs Rollout plan for remaining environments Documentation of the workshops results

Figure 2: Typical migration process

4

Phase V: Ongoing CONVERSION Support

Ongoing conversion support can take many forms from onsite assistance to workshop type intermittent meetings. Typical tasks during the ongoing support include modification of the conversion tool or the assistance with manual conversion of objects or customized tasks.

Automated Migration Routines UC4 Software provides automated migration tools for the following schedulers:

ASG: ZEKE BMC: Control-M CA (CA-7, CA-Scheduler, Autosys, TNG,

Jobtrac)

IBM: TWS (Maestro, OPC) ORSYP: Dollar Universe Redwood: Cronacle Unix: Cron Home-grown scheduling tools Others (Cron, Bagjas, APX, etc.)

The general process of the migration is described below:

Generate several reports from the old scheduler Translate the data into UC4 compatible format (scheduler definitions e.g. jobs, parameters, calendar;

customer specific adjustments e.g. naming conventions; and other customization)

Create an UC4 import file (transport case) Load the objects into the UC4 system (test environment) Integrate the objects into the system landscape

Integration into System Landscape Usually customers develop their own solutions based on the existing schedulers interfaces. For obvious reasons, such solutions will cease to work during a migration and new solutions have to be created. For example a Perl script that reads out storage-pools from a TSM database and creates the housekeeping process for each storage pool every day, using the schedulers command line interface / APIs, will become one process in UC4 which you can pass parameters to.

UC4s extensive experience with conversion makes those manual adjustments easy and controls the overall risk of the migration. Our conversion team is comprised of experts in the field of scheduling with many years of UC4 experience and can draw on many previously created template solutions.

Sample Project Plan Below is an example of a typical conversion project. The project plan is defined as a team effort between UC4 and the customer. Factors determining duration and degree of automation are:

Complexity Customizations External interfaces Follow-up strategy (UC4 / customer)

Figure 3: Integration into the system landscape

Figure 4: Sample of conversion project plan

5

Conclusion Many factors catalyze the decision to migrate an existing job scheduler to a sophisticated process management system such as UC4 Operations Manager.

Initially, this may seem an impossible undertaking, no matter what the benefits promised are. Be assured, with our extensive professional expertise and years of experience, UC4 specialists can transfer almost any form of scheduling data and create a modern process management solution with UC4 Operations Manager.

Many successful migrations and satisfied customers prove that it is not only possible to change to UC4 Operations Manager from legacy systems, but also that it shows a real and rapid return on investment.

BENEFITS

Managed risk due to outstanding migration experience Faster ROI than doing it by yourself Full enterprise-wide process management, integrating all applications and platforms Unlimited scalability, thanks to state-of-the-art software architecture Centralized process management and control Future-proof application environment from dedicated software vendor Reduced maintenance and training costs Increased reliability of workload processing

www.uc4.com