Review the following:
When you create a Distribution (by creating and configuring its object), you want it to reach certain Subscriber servers to be used by them, and you want that to happen in a useful time frame. The distribution process requires scheduling in order to do this.
Basically, the distribution process is:
You create and configure a Distribution object.
The Distributor object that you assigned the Distribution object to reads eDirectory and discovers the new Distribution.
The Distributor server builds the Distribution file according to your configuration.
You associate the Distribution object with a Channel object.
The Distributor server sends the Distribution file to the Subscriber servers that are subscribed to that Channel.
The Subscriber servers extract and install the Distribution’s content.
This distribution sequence needs to be scheduled for the following reasons:
Ordering the distribution process: The flow of a Distribution from one process to another needs to be ordered so that the Distribution gets distributed and used in a timely manner.
Conflicting scheduling might cause a Distribution to never get through the process, or to arrive and get used much later than you anticipated.
Minimizing network traffic: Scheduling can provide flexibility in controlling network bandwidth usage. For example, you can schedule large Distributions to be sent when your network’s traffic is at its lightest.
Minimizing impact on servers: Scheduling helps to minimize the impact of building, sending, and extracting Distributions for the servers involved. For example, you can schedule large Distributions to be built and extracted during off-peak hours or on weekends.
Scheduling does not affect the total network resources used by a Distribution. It only affects when those resources are used.
Some policies must be scheduled before they can be enforced.
If you enable a policy, but do not schedule it, it is activated according to the schedule currently specified in the Default Package Schedule, which provides a default for scheduled policies. The default schedule is to run at System Startup.
The order of enforcement of different server policies is not guaranteed if the policies use exactly the same schedule. In other words, you should stagger the policies’ schedules if you want to ensure the order in which they are enforced.
For information on scheduling policies, see Section 8.3, Scheduling and Server Policies.
For information on policies, see Section 4.0, Server Policies.
Policies are scheduled according to local times. Tiered Electronic Distribution objects are scheduled according to an offset from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
Server Policies example: If you are residing in Utah and set a policy to be executed at 5 p.m. Utah time, it would be executed at 5 p.m. local time in Utah for servers residing in Utah. In California, it would execute at 5 p.m. local time in California. In other words, setting a time of 5 p.m. for a policy makes it execute at 5 p.m. local time wherever the servers reside.
Tiered Electronic Distribution example: If you are residing in Utah during Daylight Saving Time and set a Tiered Electronic Distribution object’s schedule for 5 p.m., it would be executed at 5 p.m. local time in Utah. In California, it would execute at 4 p.m. local time (5 p.m. in Utah) for servers residing in California. In other words, Tiered Electronic Distribution schedules are relative to a GMT offset that makes the Tiered Electronic Distribution schedule execute at the exact same moment worldwide.
For Distributions, you can define a window of opportunity during the day for when a schedule’s action is to begin and end. Distributions are anticipated to occur during off-peak hours. For some networks, it is possible that the scheduling window can be very short. Other systems on the network also use off-peak hours for processing, such as backups.
You can have instances where the limiting factor is available time; therefore, the critical condition is how fast the distributions can take place, regardless of the resources consumed. You might need to experiment to determine the best relationship between time and resources.
If you set a schedule in the Schedule tab for the Tiered Electronic Distribution policy (in the Service Location Package), this schedule is the default for all Distributors and Subscribers for which the policy applies, unless in ConsoleOne you set a schedule for a specific Tiered Electronic Distribution object. In other words, modified schedules for Distributors and Subscribers automatically override the Tiered Electronic Distribution policy schedule.
The Distributor and Subscriber schedules are different. There are separate Schedule tabs for the Distributor’s Refresh and Subscriber’s Extract schedules.
By default, when a schedule is set in the Tiered Electronic Distribution policy, the Use Policy check boxes are displayed on both the General and Schedule tabs for all Distributors and Subscribers. And, the box is automatically selected for the Distributor and Subscriber objects that have not yet had their schedules modified. It is deselected for the objects that have a schedule defined.
You can disable the Tiered Electronic Distribution policy’s default schedule for a specific Distributor or Subscriber by deselecting the Use Policy check box in the object’s properties. Then you must define a schedule in the object’s properties for it to have a usable schedule.
You can override a specific Distributor or Subscriber schedule by selecting the Use Policy check box in that object’s properties. The Tiered Electronic Distribution policy’s schedule is then applied to that Distributor or Subscriber.
For information on how to create, configure, and schedule the Tiered Electronic Distribution policy, see Tiered Electronic Distribution.