How to wait for dbms_scheduler jobs to finish - oracle

Question

Using Oracle 11.2
Hi,
Here is what I want to do: I'm scheduling jobs using dbms_scheduler. The number of jobs to schedule is not fixed and a max of 4 jobs should run at the same time. The procedure scheduling the jobs should wait until all jobs are completed. If one job fails, the "schedule" procedure should also fail and all remaining scheduled jobs should be deleted from the scheduler.
Currently I have had to sleeping and polling the table user_scheduler_jobs in a loop.
I'm new to PL/SQL and rather inexperienced so please don't be too harsh on me ;)
Here is my code so far.
First the snippet for scheduling the jobs:
BEGIN
FOR r IN (SELECT p_values FROM some_table WHERE flag = 0 )
LOOP
-- count running jobs
SELECT count(*) INTO v_cnt
FROM user_scheduler_jobs
WHERE job_name LIKE 'something%';
/*
If max number of parallel jobs is reached, then wait before starting a new one.
*/
WHILE v_cnt >= l_max_parallel_jobs
LOOP
dbms_lock.sleep(10);
SELECT count(*) INTO v_cnt
FROM user_scheduler_jobs
WHERE job_name LIKE 'something%' AND state = 'RUNNING';
SELECT count(*) INTO v_cnt_failures
FROM user_scheduler_jobs
WHERE job_name LIKE 'something%' AND state = 'FAILED' OR state = 'BROKEN';
IF v_cnt_failures > 0 THEN RAISE some_exception; END IF;
END LOOP;
-- Start a new Job
v_job_name := 'something_someting_' || p_values;
v_job_action := 'begin user.some_procedure(''' || r.p_values || '''); end;';
dbms_scheduler.create_job(job_name => v_job_name,
job_type => 'PLSQL_BLOCK',
job_action => v_job_action,
comments => 'Some comment ' || v_job_name,
enabled => FALSE,
auto_drop => FALSE);
dbms_scheduler.set_attribute(NAME => v_job_name,
ATTRIBUTE => 'max_failures',
VALUE => '1');
dbms_scheduler.set_attribute(NAME => v_job_name,
ATTRIBUTE => 'max_runs',
VALUE => '1');
dbms_scheduler.enable(v_job_name);
v_job_count := v_job_count + 1;
-- array for all jobs
v_jobs_aat(v_job_count) := v_job_name;
END LOOP;
-- ... Wait till all jobs have finisched.
check_queue_completion(v_jobs_aat); -- see procedure below
END;
Procedure for waiting till last four jobs have finisched:
PROCEDURE check_queue_completion(p_jobs_aat IN OUT t_jobs_aat) AS
v_state user_scheduler_jobs.state%TYPE;
v_index PLS_INTEGER;
v_done BOOLEAN := TRUE;
-- Exceptions
e_job_failure EXCEPTION;
BEGIN
WHILE v_done
LOOP
v_done := FALSE;
FOR i IN p_jobs_aat.first..p_jobs_aat.last
LOOP
SELECT state INTO v_state FROM user_scheduler_jobs WHERE job_name = p_jobs_aat(i);
--dbms_output.put_line('Status: ' || v_state);
CASE
WHEN v_state = 'SUCCEEDED' OR v_state = 'COMPLETED' THEN
dbms_output.put_line(p_jobs_aat(i) || ' SUCCEEDED');
dbms_scheduler.drop_job(job_name => p_jobs_aat(i), force => TRUE);
p_jobs_aat.delete(i);
WHEN v_state = 'FAILED' OR v_state = 'BROKEN' THEN
--Exception auslösen
dbms_output.put_line(p_jobs_aat(i) || ' FAILED');
RAISE e_job_failure;
WHEN v_state = 'RUNNING' OR v_state = 'RETRY SCHEDULED' THEN
NULL;
dbms_output.put_line(p_jobs_aat(i) || ' RUNNING or RETRY SCHEDULED');
v_done := TRUE;
/*DISABLED, SCHEDULED, REMOTE, CHAIN_STALLED*/
ELSE
dbms_output.put_line(p_jobs_aat(i) || ' ELSE');
dbms_scheduler.drop_job(job_name => p_jobs_aat(i), force => TRUE);
p_jobs_aat.delete(i);
END CASE;
END LOOP;
hifa.gen_sleep(30);
END LOOP;
IF p_jobs_aat.count > 0 THEN delete_jobs_in_queue(p_jobs_aat); END IF;
EXCEPTION WHEN e_job_failure THEN
delete_jobs_in_queue(p_jobs_aat);
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20500, 'some error message');
END check_queue_completion;
It does the trick but it seems like some awful hack.
Isn't there a better way to:
Wait until all jobs have finished.
Just run four jobs at a time and start a new one as soon as one of the running jobs has finished.
Throw an exception if one job fails or is broken.

Answer 1

DECLARE
cnt NUMBER:=1;
BEGIN
WHILE cnt>=1
LOOP
SELECT count(1) INTO cnt FROM dba_scheduler_running_jobs srj
WHERE srj.job_name IN ('TEST_JOB1','TEST_JOB2');
IF cnt>0 THEN
dbms_lock.sleep (5);
END IF;
END LOOP;
dbms_output.put_line('ASASA');
END;

Answer 2

Use dbms_alert or dbms_pipe to send/receive information about job start/finish. Query the jobs table only if you do not receive the information in expected time.

Answer 3

Oracle Scheduler uses Oracle Rersource Manager heavily, Just submit your jobs, defined with an end notification and have a task waiting for your event Q that counts the jobs that are submitted and the jobs that are finished.
You use Oracle Resource manager to control the maximum number of jobs to run concurrently. This will also be based on the total database load, protecting other users agains a system flooded by jobs.