Procedures of type *USER or *NODE can be invoked by the Run Procedure (RUNPROC) command. For procedures of type *NODE, the RUNPROC command always runs on the local system. For procedures of other types, the application group command which corresponds to the procedure type must be used to invoke the procedure. For example, a procedure of type *START must be invoked by the Start Application Group (STRAG) command.
Where should the procedure begin? The value specified for the Begin at step (STEP) parameter on the request to run the procedure determines the step at which the procedure will start. The status of the last run of the procedure determines which values are valid.
The default value, *FIRST, will start the specified procedure at its first step. This value can be used when the procedure has never been run, when its previous run completed (*COMPLETED or *COMPERR), or when a user acknowledged the status of its previous run which failed, was canceled, or completed with errors (*ACKFAILED, *ACKCANCEL, or *ACKERR respectively).
Other values are for resolving problems with a failed or canceled procedure. When a procedure fails or is canceled, subsequent attempts to run the same procedure will fail until user action is taken. You will need to determine the best course of action for your environment based on the implications of the canceled or failed steps and any steps which completed.
The value *RESUME will start the last run of the procedure beginning with the step at which it failed, the step that was canceled in response to an error, or the step following where the procedure was canceled. The value *RESUME may be appropriate after you have investigated and resolved the problem which caused the procedure to end. Optionally, if the problem cannot be resolved and you want to resume the procedure anyway, you can override the attributes of a step before resuming the procedure.
The value *OVERRIDE will override the status of all runs of the specified procedure that did not complete. The *FAILED or *CANCELED status of these procedures are changed to acknowledged (*ACKFAILED or *ACKCANCEL) and a new run of the procedure begins at the first step.
The Assure MIMIX Operations book describes the operational level of working with procedures and steps in detail.