SPANEX
Current Version: 6.0SPANEX is a product that provides many facilities in many different areas of system operation. Major functions include an automatic Job Scheduling system, based upon dependent job control within the various jobs of a suite or application system, together with comprehensive calendar-based facilities; a sophisticated Job Restart system providing intelligent restart without manual intervention for the majority of job failures; a means of implementing authorized program functions with all authorization control performed by SPANEX; notification to the system operator of any failures in the job and action based upon the failure that occurred; and many more functions.
SPANEX functions as a logical extension of the Operating System Initiator, and provides many additional services to the user program. As a monitor or "front-end" processor, SPANEX detects and intercepts any failure of a user program and takes the appropriate action as specified by parameter. By this technique, SPANEX provides a simple and consistent set of error-reporting mechanisms, and avoids the necessity for wide-ranging and complicated messages and error codes within user programs.
The SPANEX Job Restart system implements the concept of building restart logic into each user Job at the design stage. The logic of the restart of each Job is defined to SPANEX such that a failed Job need only be re-submitted for execution, and recovery programs will be automatically run as necessary, depending upon the point of failure, before SPANEX retries the execution of the Jobstep where the error occurred. This principle removes all the problem analysis load from operations staff and passes responsibility for defining recovery logic to the applications development groups. The SPANEX technique also provides a standardized restart/recovery implementation that can be used throughout an installation, removing any need for customized restart or control systems.
The SPANEX Job Scheduling and Networking facilities extend this restart logic into the area of inter-job dependencies. A SPANEX Job Network can support any complexity of job relationships, with each Job being automatically scheduled by SPANEX as its pre-requisite jobs or events complete successfully. Job suites can be tailored by simple SPANEX utility commands so that different combinations of jobs can be run on different occasions with no difficulty. Using the SPANEX calendar facilities, completely automatic configuration of jobs can be achieved, supporting any number of job combinations, and an unlimited number of calendars. Various different scheduling control implementations are provided for within the SPANEX system. Job Network control can be performed by an individual user group, each group responsible for its own job suites; or can be the responsibility of an individual time-sharing user via the SPANEX terminal interface; or a specialized group of scheduling staff may be in charge of the scheduling of all job suites or networks in the installation. SPANEX facilities prevent unauthorized execution of SPANEX utility commands. SPANEX also provides an application program that allows user programs to make and implement scheduling decisions.
As an execution monitor, SPANEX provides many further facilities and services to the user program and to the installation. These facilities include secure control of the Operating System Authorised Program Facility, printing of Input/Output and Paging statistics, a "Step Cancel" facility, TSO options, secure control of non-swapability for MVS, and many other features.
