12.2. Configuring and Running Remote Commands

Procedure 12.1. To Create a Job Template:

1. Navigate to Hosts Job templates.
2. Click New Job Template. As an alternative, you can modify an existing template – in the Actions column, select Clone from the drop-down menu.
3. Configure the job template:
   1. On the Template tab, enter a unique name for your job template. Select Default to make the template available for all organizations and locations. You can insert the template manually using Template editor or upload it from a text file by clicking Browse. Templates use Embedded Ruby (ERB) template syntax, see Section 12.2.4, “Creating Advanced Templates” for more information. An advanced template is required, for example, for executing jobs that perform power actions; see Example 12.4, “Including Power Actions in Templates” for information on how to include the Power Action - SSH Default template in a custom template.
   2. On the Job tab, you can define the job category (define your own or select from the default categories listed in Table 12.1, “Default Job Template Categories”) as well as the effective user; these settings can be configured also when invoking the job (see Procedure 12.2, “To Execute a Remote Job:”). You can also define input parameters for template commands. These parameters are then requested when executing the job.
   3. Remaining tabs enable setting the template type, organizations and locations as well as viewing the template history.
4. Click Submit. When the page refreshes, your new template should appear in the list of job templates.

Procedure 12.2. To Execute a Remote Job:

1. Navigate to Hosts All hosts and select the target hosts for your job. You can use the search field to narrow down the host list.
2. From the Select Action menu at the upper right of the screen select Run Job. This will take you to the Job invocation page. Alternatively, if you target just one host, click its name and click Run Job on the host information page. Note that you can invoke jobs also from the Job Templates page by using the Run button.
3. On the Job invocation page, define the main job settings:
   1. Select the Job category and the Job template you want to use. These settings are required.
   2. Optionally, select a stored search string in the Bookmark list to specify the target hosts.
   3. Optionally, further limit the targeted hosts by inserting a Search query. The Resolves to line displays the number of hosts affected by your query. Use the refresh button to recalculate the number after changing the query. The preview icon will list the targeted hosts.
   4. The remaining settings depend on the selected job template. See Procedure 12.1, “To Create a Job Template:” for information on adding custom parameters to a template.
4. Clicking Display advanced fields will show advanced setting for the job. Some of the advanced settings depend on the job template, the following settings are general:
   • Effective user defines the user for executing the job, by default it is the SSH user.
   • Concurrency level defines maximum number of jobs executed at once, which can prevent overload of systems' resources in a case of executing the job on a large number of hosts.
   • Time span defines time interval in seconds after which the job should be killed, if it is not finished already. A task which could not be started during the defined interval, for example, if the previous task took too long to finish, is canceled.
   • Type of query defines when the search query is evaluated. This helps to keep the query up to date for scheduled tasks.
   Concurrency level and Time span settings enable you to tailor job execution to fit your infrastructure hardware and needs.
5. If you want to execute the job immediately, ensure that Schedule is set to Execute now. You can also define a one-time future job, or set up a recurring job. For recurring tasks, you can define start and end dates, number and frequency of runs. You can also use cron syntax to define repetition. For more information about cron, see Automating System Tasks section of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 System Administrator's Guide.
6. Click Submit. This displays the Job Overview page, and when the job completes, also displays the status of the job.

Procedure 12.3. To Monitor a Job:

1. Navigate to the Job page. This page is automatically displayed if you triggered the job with the Execute now setting. To monitor scheduled jobs, navigate to Monitor Jobs and select the job run you wish to inspect.
2. On the Job page, click the Hosts tab. This displays the list of hosts on which the job is running.
3. In the Host column, click the name of the host that you want to inspect. This displays the Detail of Commands page where you can monitor the job execution in real time.
4. Click Back to Job at any time to return to the Job Details page.