Solved: Job Alias Variable

eshwar.kb · ‎06-07-2012

What is the use of the variable Job Alias?

In our project we are using this variable in all Jobs. The data type of the value is INTEGER(for all jobs) in development but it is a VARCHAR in Stage environment. In fact for all the jobs, the alias is VARCHAR in Stage.

E-g:

In DEV the value 4301 is the value for Job Alias

In SIT the values is 2308A.

Why the data type is different in different environments.

Tracy Donmoyer · ‎06-07-2012

The jobmst_alias column in the jobmst table is defined as type char(10) (in MSSQL, at least). This field can be used as a user defined, unique identifier for a job. The job alias is used by the Command Line program saCmd.exe (see Command Line Program Guide documentation for details).

From my experience, when a job is created the job alias is set to the same value as the jobmst_id, which is an integer. When you use Transporter to move jobs from one environment to another and the job exists in the target, the letter "A" is appended to the job alias.

This is pure speculation on my part, but here is why I think this happens. When an existing job is migrated by Transporter, the existing job in the target environment is "deleted". When a job is "deleted" it is not deleted from the database. Instead, the jobmst_dirty flag is set in the jobmst table which marks the job for deletion during the next maintenance cycle (usually midnight). Because the original job is still in the database, the existing job alias cannot be used. So, the letter "A" is appended to the job alias so it continues to be unique.

I don't know if there is an option in Transporter to not append the 'A' to the job alias when you migrate existing jobs. I would look into that with Tidal Support. Otherwise, you will need to reset the Job Alias after the job is migrated.

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Tracy Donmoyer · ‎06-07-2012

The jobmst_alias column in the jobmst table is defined as type char(10) (in MSSQL, at least). This field can be used as a user defined, unique identifier for a job. The job alias is used by the Command Line program saCmd.exe (see Command Line Program Guide documentation for details).

From my experience, when a job is created the job alias is set to the same value as the jobmst_id, which is an integer. When you use Transporter to move jobs from one environment to another and the job exists in the target, the letter "A" is appended to the job alias.

This is pure speculation on my part, but here is why I think this happens. When an existing job is migrated by Transporter, the existing job in the target environment is "deleted". When a job is "deleted" it is not deleted from the database. Instead, the jobmst_dirty flag is set in the jobmst table which marks the job for deletion during the next maintenance cycle (usually midnight). Because the original job is still in the database, the existing job alias cannot be used. So, the letter "A" is appended to the job alias so it continues to be unique.

I don't know if there is an option in Transporter to not append the 'A' to the job alias when you migrate existing jobs. I would look into that with Tidal Support. Otherwise, you will need to reset the Job Alias after the job is migrated.

eshwar.kb · ‎06-08-2012

Thanks a lot.

We used this value to maintain a log of the job runs in a table. That was having INTEGER as the data type for the Job Alias column. Now we changed the coulmn's data type to VARCHAR and it is working fine now.