Gearing Up for Legacy Scheduler Migration
The migration process from legacy job scheduler to workload automation solution can seem daunting at first. By understanding the potential benefits and costs of each method, you will be better able to choose a migration path that fits your needs. Note that if you are consolidating multiple legacy schedulers you will need to select the most appropriate method for each legacy scheduler. For example, the most appropriate solution for converting from CA/7 or Tivoli may not be the same one that is most appropriate for converting tasks from Windows Task Scheduler or a homegrown solution.
In most cases, it makes sense to treat each of these conversions as a separate project. If one of the goals of the conversion is to integrate tasks from multiple legacy schedulers (for example by including some tasks from each legacy scheduler in a single workflow in the new tool), this integration will typically need to be done manually – either as part of a completely manual migration or as part of a hybrid migration, as described below.
Conversions can either be carried out manually or they can be automated. In many cases a hybrid of these two methods may be required in order to complete the conversion. Each of these methods has strengths as well as weaknesses.
Manual migration has strengths.
- It disposes of inefficient and risky workarounds that often build up in legacy schedulers.
- It eliminates the need to parse proprietary code.
- It allows you to “leave behind” processes and jobs that haven’t run in years but are still defined and stored.
- It enables users to quickly adopt the features of the new automation solution.
Manual migration has weaknesses.
- It relies on individuals to keep track of the migrated jobs.
- It may ignore workarounds that were actually integral to a business process.
Automated migration has strengths.
- It accelerates the time to production.
- Good ones will highlight exceptions.
Automated migration has weaknesses.
- Some migration utilities have a cost or require professional services (or both).
- The rapid conversion may not enable a team to fully take advantage of new features.
A Hybrid Migration can provide balanced benefits. Few migrations are exclusively manual or exclusively automated.
- Learn the rationale for manual vs. automated conversion.
- Group jobs by migration method so you have clear expectations of their performance in a centralized solution.
JAMS leverages a wide variety of automated conversion utilities for both platform-based jobs (Windows Task Scheduler, SQL Agent, and Cron) as well as jobs created with proprietary schedulers. Our deep catalog of conversion utilities helps us invest more time training, onboarding, and guiding new customers through the advanced features that really improve their business processes.