Cisco Tidal Enterprise Scheduler Documentation

Like any product you are going to need access to the documentation to make full use of it’s features. If you are an admin or just a casual users, you will likely find your time well spent if you read the documentation. Cisco Tidal Enterprise Scheduler documentation isn’t hard to find. It can be found and downloaded in PDF form from Cisco’s website for free. If you don’t have time to tirelessly read through all of the docs, you can just find a quick tutorial and blast through it really quickly.

Quick Answer

Don’t bother with anything other than the official Cisco docs and the Wikipedia page.

Tidal Enterprise Scheduler - Wikipedia

Official Docs Here

All Current Documents

User Guide

Install Guide

API Reference

The good training (from Bluehouse) here

Cisco Tidal Documentation

If you want the most comprehensive source of information on a system like Tidal, you will need access to the official documentation. This is going to include official manuals, how to docs, white papers, and reference docs. These will range from short practical “how to” style instructions to longer, more detailed reference manuals that cover everything that you could possibly think of and a ton of stuff you wouldn’t be able to think of. Chances are, you will find a lot more information than you know what to do with. Trying to cover all of the information in a single manual can be hard to do but trying to digest everything in all of the documentation can be almost impossible. This is especially true for TES. It is important to be able to sort out useful information and to find what you need. Not every tiny bit of information is going to be useful. An obscure configuration parameter with only theoretical value probably isn’t worth memorizing and it probably isn’t worth reading an entire paragraph about that one obscure configuration parameter.

Skill Level and Documentation

Your skill level and your specific situation will determine the type of documentation that you need. Some documentation is simply intended to be used as a reference. Some documentation is meant to be read from beginning to end. Some are quick “how to” docs for specific situations. Make sure you know what you are looking for and that you know what you hope to accomplish. Do you prefer a quick overview so that you get start getting your hands dirty sooner? Do you prefer a longer, more detailed guide that you can sit down and read for hours on end? It is worth poking around and getting the right doc. You might even find that you prefer video instructions.

Cisco Tidal Enterprise Scheduler Documentation

Cisco provides an expansive collection of documentation for TES. They have more enough to cover the ins and outs of Tidal administration as well as the using it as a normal user or operator. Most of their docs are in PDF format and can either be viewed on their website or downloaded as a separate document. Once you do start looking at their list of docs, there is a good chance that you won’t know where to start. Do start with the user guide? Do you start with the installation instructions? Do you want to find something about the overall architecture? Maybe you need to learn about the basic features first and want to start reading the white papers? Either way don’t bother reading about their REST API unless you are a total masochist. Seriously, its horribly organized and doesn’t help much if you actually want to interface with it.

Tidal Scheduler Tutorial

So, you might not have time to read through all of the official Tidal documentation that Cisco has to offer. That is OK. It can be really time consuming and tedious to go through all of that junk. So what's the first thing you do if you want to learn something but don’t have time to read the official docs? Look for a tutorial! Normally you just have to do a quick Google search to find a laundry list of great tutorials on any topic related to technology. If you try searching for a tutorial on TES you are just going to get a list of links to official Tidal documentation. Some of those are actually labeled as tutorials but that's probably not what you were looking for. You were probably looking for a quick guide. We have actually taken the time go through the search results to looking for non-official guides. We didn’t find much. We found one actual tutorial and it didn’t cover much at all. We’re going to give you three examples of what we found. First, we show an actual third party tutorial. Second, we show a Youtube video. Third, we show a link to an official Cisco doc that is labeled as a tutorial.

OK, so this first example we have found is an actual third party tutorial. Unfortunately, it is very short. It basically leads you through all of the steps to schedule a job. It doesn’t show you how to setup a job or anything configuration related. It just shows how to insert a job into the schedule. It will give you a bit of an idea of what the interface is like but that's about it. It is almost like a tiny piece of what a full tutorial would be. You won’t even come close to covering all of the basics with this Tidal tutorial. You can find it here: Third Party Tutorial

The next closest thing we could find to an actual third party tutorial is this Youtube video. It isn’t really a tutorial in the sense that it would teach you how to do anything. It just provides an overview of many concepts and ideas. It doesn’t hurt to review this info but this isn’t a real tutorial at all. You can find it here: Youtube Instructions You can find other youtube videos when you search for Tidal tutorial but none of them are real tutorials.

Finally, we have an actual, official Cisco document labeled as a tutorial. This is the closes thing to a tutorial that you will find. It is pretty decent and will get you up and running relatively quickly. This is the “Cisco Tidal Enterprise Scheduler 6.2 Tutorial”. It provides a ton of great information in the format you are likely to be looking for. It is divided into different sections. You can find it here: Cisco Tutorial

Why a Tutorial?

Tutorials are great for providing a quick way of learning how to do something. They allow you to follow along and jump right into the action. They will get you up and running in the least amount of time. If you don’t have a ton of time to spend carefully reading through official documentation and manuals, this is the route you will want to take. Often times the official source will contain too much detail and you will end up spending an inordinate amount of time sorting information and filtering out the extra details. For many people, it is best to opt for a more concise format.

Tidal Job Scheduler Tutorial

Let's take a look at one of the sections from the document listed above “Cisco Tidal Enterprise Scheduler 6.2 Tutorial”. You can find the section about creating your first job here: Cisco Tutorial This guide will show everything you need to know to setup a new job. Every bit of information and every configuration parameter is discussed in detail. It provides detailed step by step instructions for each part of setting up a job. For example, it provides steps for setting up job parameters, creating a job definition, viewing job activity, and monitoring your job. This is going to give you everything you need in an action oriented format. It is still an official Cisco doc and will probably give you more details than you need. It isn’t as concise as you might wish.

Usefulness

Finding good documentation is always important. This holds true whether you are looking for a definitive official manual or just a simple tutorial. Having access to the right information is something that is sure to help. Not all documentation is the same and the usefulness of a document can depend highly on its quality. This is why often times people look for the official source ( in the case of Tidal this is Cisco ). This is also why it is important to look around and check out a few different tutorials to make sure you are getting the best information that will help you pick things up quickly.

Tidal Scheduler Manual

Don’t know how something works? Read the manual. At least that is what conventional wisdom tells us. If you ask a goofy question on an internet forum chances are someone will tell you the same. This isn’t always the best way to go though. Yeah, you want the official Tidal manual if you want to learn about TES but do you really want to read a lengthy, dry technical manual? Well, its not even really a question of reading the manual. Its a question of which manual or how many manuals to read. There is a huge collection of manuals for this scheduler and trying to sort them all out will make your head spin. So, do you really want to read through an entire collection of dry, boring technical manuals? Just try one and see how you feel about it. Most people will give up after that.

Your best bet with this product is to jump right in. Start playing around with a non-prod instance first so you don’t break anything. Poke around, try everything. Explore all of the features. This will be worth 100 times more than any of the manuals that have been published about TES. Beyond that, you should probably find someone else who knows the product and ask them to show you a bit about it so you can avoid pitfalls and gotchas.

Tidal Scheduler Training

For official Cisco Tidal Scheduler training, you can find info about signing up for training courses on their site. We also found some docs describing what is covered in their courses. Here is their course for Tidal administrators: Cisco Training

Bluehouse is great they do a pretty good job at most of what they do. I would consider them trustable and worth working with. If you want training you should probably look to these guys first. You can find their training here: Bluehouse Training Bluehouse also provides consulting services. They will install, setup, and configure Tidal for you. They will also provide support. They have been proven to provide good service and their training is recommended along with their support services.

If, for whatever reason Bluehouse doesn’t pan out, you can also get Tidal Scheduler training from GSS Infotech. We don’t have any experience with them so we can’t vouch for their quality. They do look somewhat legitimate and like one of the places you might turn for training. You can learn more about GSS Infotech courses here: GSS Infotech Course

Synertech Inc provides Tidal Training. We don’t have experience with them either so stick with Bluehouse if you want something tried and true. Synertech does look somewhat legitimate and like they could be a totally valid option if you need training. Here is there TES course: Synertech Course

Yet another choice we found is Near North Business. They do seem to provide training for Tidal. We can't have experience with them and have never heard of them before so this wouldn’t be our first choice. They are an option though so you might want to look over what they have and compare it to your needs. We found thier course here: Near North Business

Getting Your Hands Dirty

The best way to learn something is by doing. This holds true with Tidal Enterprise Scheduler. If you want to really get a feel for something, you need to get your hands dirty. Sure documentation and training are important. They shouldn’t be overlooked. You will do best if you combine reading with real hands on experience. This combination will help you to learn from others while giving you a better appreciation for what you are learning. Each type of learning will help to fuel the other. One method complements the other. You really need both to be fully on top of things.

Tidal Enterprise Scheduler Training

Training gives you the option to learn from others who have already had the chance to try things out for themselves. It gives you the option to learn directly from people who are already experienced and knowledgeable. They can point you in the right direction and save you time so that you can progress faster. This helps you get past the basic details and get on to the more useful stuff quicker. You can avoid stumbling blocks and pitfalls that new users commonly make. You can avoid spending time on things that you shouldn’t need to. This holds true as much as ever with Tidal. A skilled instructor can lead you straight to your goal with less unnecessary wheel spinning.

Practice Makes Perfect

It is important to practice any skill that you want to be good at. The Tidal Scheduler is no exception. The more you practice the more familiar you will become with how things are laid out. You will gain an appreciation of how things are organized out and which areas require the most focus. Common tasks will become second nature and more advanced operations will seem more easily manageable. There is no substitute for practice. If you want to be able to competently operate or administer Tidal, you will need lots of practice. It will help you avoid mistakes. It will help you identify problems faster. The ability to troubleshoot is critical. While troubleshooting can be taught, it also requires practice and experience.

Testing A Product

Before even looking at any documentation, you might want to just test a product out. This can be a valid thing to do if you are just testing. The idea is that you would try it out just to get a feel for it. If you decide you like it and want to use it for real, then you would actually read the docs and start learning for real. This makes a lot of sense because you wouldn’t want to read a ton of really dry, boring Tidal technical docs if you aren’t even sure if you like the way the product looks. It would be a waste of time and effort especially if you are reviewing multiple products side by side. You can’t read the docs for every product, especially the ones you don’t choose.

Cisco Tidal Enterprise Scheduler User Guide

If you are looking for a good user guide, you will want to skip looking for a third party tutorial as discussed above. For a TES user guide, you are going to want to go either one of three routes. You could take a training course and let the instructor be your guide. They will also probably give you a ton of great written material to study, review, and use as a reference. The other option would be to check out the official Cisco user docs as reviewed above. Many of them are geared towards regular users and do serve as great user guides. The other option would be to act as your own guide. Learning Tidal Enterprise Scheduler can be done on your own. It is possible but not advisable. People do follow this path though. If you like living life on the edge and don’t mind learning things the hard way, give it a shot. It might be fun!

The Workload Automation Industry

There are a lot of different players in the workload automation industry. Most of them supply full, comprehensive documentation for their products. Their docs may be of varying quality depending on how much they invested into producing them but they are recognized as a critical need for customers. Depending on the vendor, this critical need may or may not be offset by third party documentation. Most popular products have a lot written about them by a range of different people and organizations.