JAMS

Jams: How to automate OpenVMS...and more

Comments: Core functionality was interfacing with an Alpha server running on OpenVMS software. We needed a way to better automate the processing. Also important was to get notifications if things went wrong, and for a non-programmer to quickly resolve issues that might come up. We did not want them looking through batch files and trying to figure out what failed and when.

Pros:

One of the few programs on the market that integrates well with OpenVMS via a native agent.

Cons:

Debugging of scripts is more burdensome than it could be, but I like the audit capabilities where you can roll back to previous versions of a job very easily.

JAMS helps IT do their job

Comments: Our team has used JAMS extensively to manage a number of different tasks/processes on several different servers and different operating systems (unix/windows) with a number of different methods such as scripting (bash/powershell) and SSIS calls and calling URL endpoints as well. This is a very flexible tool and it works well for our IT services team.

Pros:

Jams is a pretty full featured job schedule tool. Jobs can be scheduled to run on repeated (hourly) or one time. Jobs can be tired or chained if you want as well. The interface is well done so you don't spend a lot of time finding what you need to modify or update a job. My favorite feature is the email log for completed or errored jobs, so you can get right to work - from your email tool by viewing the log.

Cons:

I have found that the search/query tool doesn't default to the current day when I'm looking for a job. I realize that some users want to keep the query as they left it - thus the need to keep the previous dates and query string. Perhaps a "reset to default" button to clear everything up and get the query tool ready to use would be helpful.

Excellent idea for software, clients, and scheduling. However, very buggy and not well executed

Pros:

The idea of having JAMS scheduler handle jobs and monitor them is fantastic and is the best solution so far for batch jobs while managing 20-50 servers.

Cons:

Software is extremely buggy, web client is almost unusable, constant updates, clients sometimes crashes leaving an entire system useless until restarted, sometimes updates fail wasting company time in reverting state

JAMS ease of use, ease of understanding

Comments: Very positive. It is a great tool for a variety of teams to use.
At our site, the non-production JAMS instance is used to insure the jobs / setups work as expected BEFORE being deployed to Production.
And once in Production, Setups & Jobs can be visually monitored by the general public.
A variety of notifications on a job's status can be sent automatically, thus eliminating the need to involve valuable "production" resources to answer routine inquires of process owners. Win-win!

Pros:

JAMS has an amazing amount of processing capabilities available. However, the support team is an invaluable part of the product. The support team has been fantastic in helping me to understand what capabilities are available and exactly how to use them. Response to on-line chat requests are answered very quickly. They offer to set up GoToMeetings for hands on assistance. And, on the rare occasion the technician doesn't know the answer, he will find the answer for you! Amazing! They take customer support seriously! The product is tremendously robust too!

Cons:

It can seem a little clunky when using the UI. Sometimes the response time in viewing the detail screens is slow. However, it is difficult to know if it is the JAMS product or our environment that is slow in rendering results.

JAMS Scheduler From HelpSystems

Comments: As I stated above, I have been using JAMS since 2009 and here it is now 2019. JAMS is easy to install and once up and running JAMS just keeps on running. JAMS is extremely stable. The JAMS Support Staff is very knowledgeable and respond if needed very quickly. JAMS Support also resolves any issues quickly and resolves the issue the first time.

Pros:

I am the JAMS Administrator at one of the largest Banking Financial Institutions Worldwide. We have been using JAMS Scheduler since 2009 in our Credit Card Division and Mortgage Division scheduling and running thousands of batch reports worldwide each month with no issues, automatically running all jobs on time as scheduled and as requested. Another vendors scheduler system used in other divisions is called AutoSys. Once Line of Business partners see JAMS they ask: How do we convert from AutoSys to JAMS.

Cons:

CONS would be just that during major upgrades from one release version to the next higher release version, ex: version 6 to version 7 migration, the new version is NOT backwards compatible, thereby causing to have to perform the Big Bang approach to upgrading to the newest release.