About Batch Processing Schedules

Once the basic vectorization and rendering batch processing is started, there are more advanced options possible such as advanced scheduling.

By creating a schedule to monitor the batch processing, you can determine which machines perform the batch processing and when they do it. Each batch processing machine on your network has its own set of schedules and you can view and modify them from any machine on the network.

There are three types of schedules available for a machine:

  • Supervisory Schedule: Assigns a one-time batch processing job to a machine. For example, you can define a Supervisory schedule for a machine to perform batch processing work for the next four hours.

Of the three types of schedules, Supervisory schedules have the highest priority. If you define a Supervisory schedule for a specific period of time on a machine, it will perform the batch processing work according to that schedule, regardless of what the Periodic and Default schedules define for that period of time.

  • Periodic Schedule: Assigns recurring batch processing jobs. For example, you can define a Periodic schedule for a machine to perform batch processing only on Saturdays and Sundays.

Periodic schedules use the days of the week, so you can have batch processing occurring each week on specific days.

In terms of priority, a Periodic schedule supersedes a Default schedule, but not a Supervisory Schedule. If there is a Periodic schedule active on a machine, then it performs this type of batch processing according to its Periodic schedule before it uses the Default schedule.

  • Default Schedule: Defines which jobs the machine can process if there are no other schedules defined. Default schedules have the lowest priority, and are used only when Supervisory and Periodic schedules are not present or do not define the work to be done for a particular period of time.

When creating or modifying a schedule, you must supply the following information:

  • Dates and times for which the schedule applies
  • Machine(s) for which the schedule applies
  • Whether batch processing is ON or OFF (whether that machine does or does not perform batch processing work)
  • The type of batch processing to be done: Vectorize and/or Rendering
  • The environments for which batch processing processes the artwork
  • The priority of the environments to be batch processed (optional)

For any given machine, you can define, clear and view the Supervisory and Periodic schedules. You can only modify or view the Default schedule for a machine.

You can also shut down and start up environments to stop and start batch processing of a particular environment on a machine(s). When you shut down an environment, you are overriding whatever you already scheduled for it (according to each type of schedule). Therefore, you will stop any batch processing jobs on the environment until you start that environment again. You can also view a schedule's status to see an overview of all schedules set for a specified time.