KLVSCHED

KLVSCHED is a simple scheduler for NetWare^® systems. It allows to schedule programs to run

at a specified date and time
after a pre-determined delay.

The program to be scheduled must be callable by a NetWare console command.

KLVSCHED is a great tool for NetWare 3 sites who which to regularily reboot their fileservers.

System Requirements

KLCSCHED runs under NetWare 3.x and 4.x. KLVSCHED is not a NLM but a REXXWARE script. Thus it requires REXXWARE^® (by Simware) to run. KLVSCHED is tested with Version 1.20 and 1.21a of the REXXWARE product. It might or might not work with other versions.

The REXXWARE Job Server (RXSERVER) is NOT required to run in order to use KLVSCHED!

Installation

KLVSCHED's installation is a simple 1-2-3 process:

Before installing KLVSCHED, be sure to read and understand the license agreement (license.txt) in the distribution set. If your license agreement is missing, poll our server (http://www.klv.com) for a complete installation set and DO NOT INSTALL KLVSCHED before you got the whole thing!
Make sure that REXXWARE is correctly installed and functional. You may verify this by calling one of the Simware-supplied sample scripts (e.g. VOLHOGS.SRX). Although KLVSCHED runs on top of REXXWARE, it just needs REXXWARE's core functionality (just REXXWARE.NLM loaded). You do not need to load any additional REXXWARE components.
Simply copy KLVSCHED.NPC to your REXXWARE-directory (mostly SYS:REXXWARE) on all fileservers you want KLVSCHED to use on. Remote execution is NOT supported by KLVSCHED. You might also copy KLVSCHED to any other directory. However, in this case you have to specify the complete path name each time you call KLVSCHED (e.g. rx SYS:KLVSCHED/KLVSCHED ... instead of rx KLVSCHED ...).

Usage

KLVSCHED is called with REXXWARE's rx-command. It can be loaded several times. Its basic syntax is as follows:

rx klvsched SchedMode SchedTime Command

SchedMode

Basically specifies at which date (from today) the command is to be scheduled. The next Parameter (SchedTime) specifies at what time the command is to be scheduled. The following modes are supported:

0 .. 365: Just a number means "in that number of days time". 0 means today, 1 is tommorrow while 365 means "in a years time".
TODAY: as you imagine, this means today. Please note that in this case you cannot specify a time earlier than the current time (in SchedTime).
TOMORROW: does what it says...
NEXT_WEEK: Schedules the command to be executed in one week, that is 7 days from now.
NEXT_MONDAY, NEXT_TUESDAY, ...: Schedules the program to be run on the next weekday (e.g. monday) following to this day. KLVSCHED itself computes the current weekday and the number of days to wait 'til the requested weekday. If the current weekday is the requested one, scheduling will happen in a weeks time.
DELAY: Schedules the given command after a SchedTime delay (see there).

SchedTime

Specifies at what time the command is to be scheduled. The format for this is HH:MM:SS. HH is specified in military format (0 .. 23).

If SchedMode is "DELAY", SchedTime holds the time to delay the command. Its format is still HH:MM:SS, but 01:00:00 does not mean at 1am but "in 1 hours time".

Command

You can use any valid NetWare command as well as any NCF-file. KLVSCHED simply stuffes this command into NetWare's system console as soon as the scheduled time has been reached. Thus virtually everything can be scheduled by KLVSCHED.

Typical Traps

KLVSCHED takes great care to prevent losing control of the system console at scheduling time. However, it might happen that two or more processes try to control the console at one time. This typically results in none of them being successfull.

Although this scenario is extremly seldom, it might happen. In such cases, KLVSCHED might not be able to schedule the command.

Never schedule two (or more) instances of KLVSCHED to exactly the same scheduling time. In this case you can be sure you'll run into trouble, as both compete for the system console at the same time.

Examples

Regular Fileserver Reboot

NetWare 3 sites often want to reboot their fileservers regularily to fight memory fragmentation and performance degradation (a problem not known to NetWare 4). Imagine, you'd like to reboot your fileserver every sunday morning (when there are no users connected) at 3am. With KLVSCHED, do the following to acomplish this task:

Create a NCF-file SYS:SYSTEM/REBOOT.TXT with the following commands:
remove dos down exit
Make sure the system will really come up automatically (e.g. verify config files, EISA config etc.)
Make sure that "SECURE CONSOLE" is NOT used in your system startup files (autoexec.ncf, startup.ncf).
Add the following line to autoexec.ncf:
rx klvsched next_sunday 03:00:00 reboot
Be sure to add this line after loading rexxware.nlm!
Enter the same line manually at the system console. This will initially start the automatic reboot process for next sunday morning.

From now on, you server will automatically boot each sunday at 3am.

Support and Enhancements

We invite you to visit our W3 site at http://www.klv.com. We regularily post important information and new software versions on our server.