Control-M - Add Class and Sophistication to your Scheduling!
May 17, 2016
Control-M - Add Class and Sophistication to your Scheduling!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Control-M
We are using Control-M as a job scheduler, running all manner of job types from SSIS, Web Services, AFT, Encrypt and Decrypt, Stored Procedures, Batch Files, BCP, etc. It allows us to integrate our environments, creating complex dependencies between jobs, and monitor it using a well deigned console. It replaced an internal scheduling engine build on top of MSMQ and Windows native scheduler. It is used by the IT department, but email notifications and attachments are sent to business users around the company.
- Job Dependencies: Control-M can be used in sophisticated ways to link jobs - for example embedding logic that decides what return code to produce based on output from the job (e.g. look for an error message in the job log). It also allows force ordering a job (i.e. dynamically executing a job), or forcing a job status to OK or Failure. Of course it also has traditional job dependencies ( e.g. when job a finishes kick off job b, or kick off job c at a specific time). It also easily allows for combining various dependency types.
- Job Monitoring: Control-M has a sophisticated console for monitoring jobs. It allows easy access to job history and job output, and thru a GUI view of job dependencies.
- Job Setup: Control-M provides plugins for many different job templates including FTP, Cryptography, and web Services. It is highly configurable and provides a scripting language. Simple jobs can be set up in minutes using pre-built templates, and complex problems can also be solved by putting in the time and research.
- Single Major Action per job: this statement needs to be clarified. There are ways to do more than one action per job, and there are pre and post job commands available in most templates. Also some templates like FTP can have many instructions built in, like deleting source files after transfer (these are part of the positives). But basically you can only do one major action, like call one web service, or call one stored procedure per job. I believe this limitation is due to their licensing model, to ensure you will run as many jobs as possible.
- The only other negative is a necessary corollary of a having a powerful product. The learning curve is not simple due to the power of the product. I would recommend dedicate training for the primary operators and users of the product.
- While I cannot share specific numbers I can say that Control-M has provided a level of scheduling and integration over the system it replaced that has increased productivity and increased reliably in our system. It has reduced the number of hours spent on monitoring and troubleshooting jobs, on a per job basis.