250-613: AutoSys Technical Specialist Exam

1. AutoSys Architecture & Core Components (15%)

This section evaluates your knowledge of how AutoSys processes events, handles communication across environments, and ensures high availability.

Core Architectural Components:

Scheduler: Processing events, polling the database, and initiating job execution.

Application Server: Acting as the intermediary layer between user interfaces (CLI, Web UI) and the Event Server.

Event Server (Database): Managing dual/multi-database configurations and structure repository storage.

Agents: Initializing job processes on target machines and communicating status back to the Application Server.

Web UI & REST Web Server: Interfacing via modern APIs and dashboards.

High Availability (HA) & Failover Orchestration:

Configuring Primary, Shadow, and Tie-Breaker schedulers.

Dual-event server setup, synchronizing active/passive nodes, and automatic database failover mechanics.

Network & Communication Pathways:

Inbound/outbound port configurations for agents and application servers.

Encryption of communication channels using SSL/TLS.

Deployment Models:

Design layouts for On-Premises, Cloud, and Hybrid computing topologies.

2. AutoSys Core Objects & Job Definitions (20%)

Focuses on structural component creation and the native syntax required to build foundational definitions.

Core Object Architecture:

Machines: Real, virtual, and virtual machine groups (load balancing vs. round-robin definitions).

Job Types: Command (CMD), File Watcher (FW), and Box (BOX) jobs.

Global Variables & Resources: Virtual resources (exclusive vs. shared tokens) and execution constraints.

Job Definition Methods:

JIL (Job Information Language): Writing script syntax, using subcommands (insert_job, update_job, delete_job), and assigning key attributes (command, machine, owner, date_conditions).

Web UI / REST API: Managing batch creations, programmatic CRUD operations via standard JSON payloads.

Advanced Parameter Specifications:

Implementing job overrides (one-time execution parameters).

Defining complex starting criteria based on multiple lookback conditions and dependencies.

3. Scheduling Techniques & Workflow Automation (15%)

Covers the logic patterns used to schedule complex computing workflows across enterprise environments.

Time-Based & Calendar Scheduling:

Standard Calendars: Specific day/date inclusions.

Extended Calendars: Utilizing cycle definitions, holidays, business logic, and delta offsets.

Dependency-Based & Event-Driven Workflows:

Creating condition-based chains using job success (s), failure (f), termination (t), or execution status (e).

Lookback tracking parameters and cross-instance dependency structures.

Cloud & Modern Integration Orchestration:

Orchestrating serverless tasks, cloud native workflows (AWS, Azure, GCP), and microservices through specialized job templates or Web Service (HTTP/REST) job attributes.

4. Job Management, Control, & Command-Line Utilities (15%)

Tests interactive operation management using the command line and user interface tools.

CLI Operational Management:

Mastering commands like sendevent to force start, hold, release, or change the status of a job.

autorep syntax variations to generate structural job definitions, status updates, and runtime logs.

jil command executions for batch processing.

Status & Structural Control:

Manipulating workflows by overriding boxes, putting items on ice (ON_ICE), or placing them on hold (ON_HOLD).

Evaluating downstream processing effects when parent or child jobs are systematically isolated.

5. Monitoring, Reporting, & Enterprise Alarms (10%)

Focuses on maintaining operational health and alerting mechanisms for unexpected operational patterns.

Health and Performance Monitoring:

Tracking active resource allocations, thread pools, and queuing thresholds.

Enterprise Alarming:

Catching and reacting to native AutoSys alarms (e.g., AUTO_REMOTE_EXEC_FAIL, CHASE, DB_PROBLEM, MAX_RUN_ALARM).

Reporting Analytics:

Generating historical completion audits and parsing performance data to identify pipeline performance drops.

6. Security, Authentication, & Access Control (10%)

Ensures that administrative actions and cross-platform job runs strictly match organizational security postures.

Embedded Entitlements Manager (EEM) Integration:

Configuring user authentication, global roles, and access authorization trees.

Creating and executing fine-grained security policies for user groups down to individual job names or prefixes.

Secure Execution Policies:

Handling target agent execution profiles, ssh key passphrases, and secure credential storage manager integrations.

Isolating privilege elevation during remote system execution.

7. Administration, Maintenance, & Troubleshooting (15%)

Evaluates infrastructure-level competence regarding deployment configuration, upgrades, and system recovery.

Installation & Continuous Lifecycle Maintenance:

Upgrades routes (In-place migrations vs. Parallel migration paths).

Configuring configuration profiles (config.$AUTOSERV).

Log Diagnostics & Root Cause Analysis:

Analyzing event server traces, application logs, and individual agent track logs (out and err).

Troubleshooting broken agent-to-server communication loops and resolving database deadlocks.

Database Hygiene & Optimization:

Running data purging archive routines (archive_events) to prevent performance drops over time.

Creating database backup copies and testing failback scenarios.