A NiagaraNetworkJobPrototype component (or simply a “job prototype”) is a persisted component that specifies a Niagara provisioning job—meaning a specific set of steps to be performed on a given list of Niagara stations. You typically link the out (Trigger) slot of a standard TriggerSchedule to the component’s “Submit Job” action, to specify some future (and possibly periodic) execution.

Because of available “job retention policies”, these are the preferred components to configure regular station backup provisioning jobs—something otherwise unavailable when setting up a provisioning job from the ProvisioningNwExt (Niagara Network Job Builder view).

Add these components in the Supervisor station for provisioning its NiagaraNetwork. A copy is in the provisioningNiagara palette, as a “NiagaraNetworkJobPrototype” component. Like other components, you can duplicate, modify, and reuse these jobs as needed in the Supervisor station.

Locate these job prototype components anywhere needed in the architecture of the Supervisor’s station database—for example, they do not need to be under the ProvisioningNwExt, or even the NiagaraNetwork.

Figure 27 shows a job prototype (NiagaraNetworkJobPrototype component) added, copied/dragged from the palette.

Alternatively, you can quickly make a “one-time/run-now” job using the Niagara Network Job Builder. However, unlike job prototypes, that job cannot be saved as a component for reuse. Furthermore, as a best practice you should run a “Backup Stations” step only in job prototypes, for “job retention” purposes.

Further details on job prototype components are in the following subsections: