Page History

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• JS7 is a rewrite of the JobScheduler components products from scratch. The motivation for developing JS7 was not to improve the existing 1.x branch (JS1) but to create something better.
•  The code base of JS1 partly dates back some 12 years, major parts had been written in C++ for an object oriented design. There are three reasons for rewriting JS7:
  • A code base needs a redesign from time to time: you cannot indefinitely continue to add bells and whistles when. for example, the code was not designed to meet more elaborate security requirements which were not known or evident at the time of writing. JS7 is designed to meet up-to-date requirements for performance, resilience and security.
  • The C++ code base means that a number of software packages have to be installed in the operating system. In addition, it does not allow perfect platform independence. JS7 makes use of Java for the purpose of guaranteed platform independence and minimum installation requirements.
  • The object oriented design of JS1 is not a perfect match for ongoing development of the product. You can design an object oriented model with future development of a product in mind for a foreseeable time only, maybe for some two to four years, but you cannot design a model that is stable for a product life cycle of eight years. SOS switched to the Scala programming language using a functional design for most parts of the JS7 Controller and Agent. This is due to the fact that functional programming is free from side effects, whereas an object oriented approach tends to add more and more relationships to objects that makes ongoing product development increasingly complex.
• The first release of JS7 is focused on new users of the product. Existing users of the JobScheduler will find migration tools that are being improved in the course of JS7 releases, See the JS7 - Migration of JobScheduler 1.x Job Configuration article for more information.

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• The file based configuration of JS1 is not perfectly cloud usable. This is why branch 1.13 dropped the JOE job editor and introduced browser based management of job-related configurations stored with the database. However, JS1 allows modifications of job-related configuration by files for users with access to the operating system. From a security perspective this is not a perfect design as technical permissions which allow a system administrator to modify files at operating system level are not related to role based permissions that determine who should be entitled to modify and to deploy jobs.
• JS7 follows a role based access model that excludes OS users such as a root account with technical permissions for file systems. Instead, digital signatures are used to prove to a Controller and Agent that a specific user is entitled to deploy certain workflows and jobs - see JS7 - Secure Deployment of Scheduling Objects for more information. This adds non-repudiability to job-related deployment that is not based on trust relationships for JS7 components products but purely on the use of certificates. For example, an Agent does not trust a Controller or JOC Cockpit, it only trusts the available certificates.
• For lovers of the straightforward option available with JS1 to push/pull job-related configuration files to/from a version control system, the good news is: JS7 includes the JS7 - Git Repository Interface. Support for additional version control products is available from file based exports of the JS7 - Inventory Export and Import.

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• JS1
  • The license model includes running any number of parallel jobs with Masters and Agents if used with the commercial license.
  • Users of the open source license can run any number of parallel jobs with Masters and are limited to running one task at a time with Agents.
• JS7
  • JS7 introduces a new license model: for details see the JS7 - License article.
  • Users of the open source license can run any number of parallel jobs with JS7 Agents.
  • The same source code and therefore the same feature functionality is available with both license models. The one exception is the operational feature of clustering JS7 components products for high availability which is a commercially available feature for license holders.
• JS1 + JS7
  • The SOS is committed to open source which is about free software, in the sense of freely available source code.
  • Customers with commercial licenses benefit from additional Support Options and Services.

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