Jobs
  • 16 Nov 2022
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Jobs

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Article Summary

A job is a running instance of a workflow and can be associated with groups of users. From the Operations Manager application, you can view and manage all active, completed, and cancelled jobs.

Jobs in Operations Manager

To access Jobs in Operations Manager:

  1. Click Operations Manager in the Operation section (left navbar) of the IAP home page. Alternatively, click Job Manager from the Legacy & Custom menu.

    Figure 1: Access Jobs

    01-IAP-21.2

  2. The main page of the Operations Manager application displays a table view of tasks and jobs, and a side navigation menu. Select the Jobs tab to display the jobs dashboard. There are several quick actions that can be performed from this view.

    Figure 2: Jobs Dashboard

    02-OpsManager-Jobs-21.2

  3. Use the checkbox to select a job to pause or cancel a running job. You can watch selected jobs, or use the toggle switch to show only watched jobs. You can also search for jobs within a collection using the search bar. Jobs can be filtered and sorted by status, the user who started a job, and start date/time. Last, at the end of each job row is a menu button (stacked dots) to view or stop watching a job.

    Figure 3: Pause Jobs

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    Figure 4: Cancel Jobs

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    Figure 5: Watch Jobs

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    Figure 6: Jobs Menu Button

    06-jobsMenuButton-21.2

Further Reading:

See the Operations Manager Developer guide for information related to job and task search APIs.

Jobs UI

This section of the guide explains the user interface (UI) and the various actions that can be managed and performed in Jobs. The UI display consistently follows several of the same actions available in the Jobs dashboard.

Figure 7: Jobs UI

07-jobsUI-21.2

Label UI Element Function
1 Toolbar Icons for completing quick actions from anywhere within Operations Manager. These icons (from left to right) are: Create, Import, IAP Homepage, Search Automations, and Display Job Metrics.
2 Job Actions These icons (from left to right) are used to temporarily pause a running (active) job, immediately cancel a running job, and watch selected jobs. Use the toggle switch to show only watched jobs.
3 Jobs Category Display a table for the relevant job category (active, canceled, errored, and watched jobs).
4 Search Search across all job categories. Results can be filtered and sorted by status, who started a job, and start date/time.
5 Jobs List Table view of job names, related status, and start date/time.
6 Menu Button Used to view workflow details for a job or stop watching a job.
7 Pagination Control Used to show the total number of pages and to page through a jobs list. Also used to set how many jobs to show if there are too many listed.

Pausing Jobs

When pausing a job, only future task execution within that job will be paused. This means that if a task is actively running when the pause button is clicked that task will complete, but no subsequent tasks will run. The main exception to this is the childJob task, which will pause its own tasks, instead of continuing the child job until it completes.

If the actively running task is the final task in the job before workflow_end, and is not a childJob task, the job will complete. If that job is itself a child job it will also update the parent job's childJob task. However, no additional future tasks will be run, even if job statuses and metadata are updated.

Job Metrics

In the top toolbar, click the icon to open a widget that displays all available Job Metrics in Operations Manager.

Figure 8: Job Metrics Button

08-jobMetricsButton-21.2

From the widget, you can browse previously-run workflows and view basic job metrics, including the ability to track time saved and display data as a pie chart. You can also filter job metrics by a run window in the past week, past month, or other specified time. Lastly, you can use the icons at the end of each row to view or edit the detailed metrics for each workflow.

Figure 9: Job Metrics Overview

09-jobMetricsOverview-21.2

Further Reading:

See the Job Metrics guide for additional detail on the widget as an entry point for analyzing time savings and performance statistics for jobs.

Job Details

The Job Details view displays a visualization of the workflow of a job. From this visualization, you can view details related to any workflow tasks or the job itself. In addition, tools are provided for working with any tasks present in a workflow.

To open the Job Details view for a job:

  1. Locate the row of the desired job in the Jobs List table.
  2. Click the Menu Button (stacked dots) at the end of the row; a context menu will appear.
  3. Click the View Button in the context menu to display a workflow visualization (canvas) and the job details for the desired job.

Figure 10: Menu Button to View Job Details

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Figure 11: Job Details and Visualization

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Job Status

From the Job Details view, click the menu button next to the status indicator (upper-right) to:

  • Pause a job that is currently running.
  • Watch a job.
  • Cancel a job that is currently running or paused.

Figure 12: Actively Running Job Indicator

12-activeRunningJobMenu-21.2

Job Properties

The Job Properties panel, located on the right-hand side of the Job Details view, displays runtime information about a job. This information is accessed via tabs at the top of the panel. The tabs available differ depending on whether the job is running a Gen 1 or Gen 2 workflow. The differences in the Job Properties panel between Gen 1 and Gen 2 workflows are outlined in the following sections.

Gen 2

The Job Properties panel of Gen 2 workflows provides access to the Details, Input, and Output tabs.

The Details tab provides basic properties of a job, including:

  • The workflow name.
  • A job ID to uniquely identify the job.
  • A job description.
  • The user that created the job.
  • A timestamp denoting when the job was started.
  • User groups that are permitted to work the tasks in the job.

Figure 13: Details Tab

13-jobProperties-DetailsTab-21.2

The Input tab shows the incoming variables of the job and provides a toggle switch to render a JSON view of these variables. From the JSON view, click the menu button (stacked dots) to copy the variables or toggle the dark viewing mode.

Figure 14: Input Tab

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Figure 15: Input Tab JSON View

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The Output tab shows the outgoing variables of the job. These variables can then be used as variables in subsequent jobs.

Figure 16: Output Tab

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Gen 1

The Job Properties panel of Gen 1 workflows provides access to the Details and Job Variables tabs.

The Details tab provides basic properties of a job, including:

  • The workflow name.
  • A job ID to uniquely identify the job.
  • A job description.
  • The user that created the job.
  • A timestamp denoting when the job was started.
  • User groups that are permitted to work the tasks in the job.

Figure 17: Details Tab
17-detailsTab-Gen1-21.2

The Job Variables tab shows the variables of the job and provides a toggle switch to render a JSON view of these variables. From the JSON view, click the menu button (stacked dots) to copy the variables or toggle the dark viewing mode.

Figure 18: Job Variables Tab

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Figure 19: Job Variables Tab JSON View

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Job Details Panel

The Job Details panel located at the bottom of the workflow visualization displays a table view of all tasks present in the current workflow. Several tools for task management are available in this table, depending on the type of task you are interacting with as the workflow progresses.

Viewing Task Information

Depending on the type and status of a task, the View button will either be a button (eye icon) or an option within the stacked dots menu.

To view advanced information about a specific task:

  1. Locate the row of the desired task in the table view.
  2. Click the View button at the end of the row; a slider panel will appear from the Job Properties pane on the right-hand side of the window.

The slider panel displays the Actions, Variables and Details tabs. The Actions tab displays actions that can be performed on the selected task, such as reverting a job to that task. If the selected task has encountered an error, the Actions tab is replaced by the Error tab. The Error tab displays information related to the error, such as the timestamp of the error and the error message.

The Variables tab displays any incoming or outgoing variables related to the selected task.

The Details tab provides information about the selected task such as name, ID, and status.

To close the slider panel and return to the Job Properties, click the left-facing arrow at the top-left of the panel.

Figure 20: Task Slider Panel

20-jobDetails-SliderPanel-21.2

Reverting a Task

While a workflow is in a paused state, you can use the Revert button of any task to re-run the workflow from that task forward. This allows you to fix task errors, such as incorrect input variables, that may otherwise result in the failure of the workflow.

Figure 21: Revert a Task

21-jobDetails-RevertTask-21.2

Interacting with Actionable Tasks

You can interact with any actionable tasks directly from the Job Details panel. To view the task details modal of an actionable task:

  1. Locate the row of the desired actionable task in the table view.
  2. Click the Menu Button (stacked dots) at the end of the row; a context menu will appear.
  3. A Work or Retry Button will be listed in the context menu for workable tasks and retryable tasks, respectively. Click the applicable button.

Figure 22: Retry Job Task

22-retryTask-21.2


To interact with actionable tasks automatically as a workflow progresses, enable the Auto-Work feature. This can be done by either:

  • Selecting the Auto-Work button from the Job Details panel.
  • Appending the ?autoWork=true query string to the URL of a running job. This is useful for creating links to be used in automated communications such as e-mails and alerts. When a user follows the link, any actionable tasks present in the workflow will begin execution.

Figure 23: Auto-Work URL
Auto-Work in URL


To filter the table view to show only actionable tasks, click the Show Only Actionable Tasks toggle switch.

Figure 24: Show Only Actionable Tasks
Show Actionable Tasks

Further Reading:

See the Gen 1 and Gen 2 Task guides for additional detail.

Job Errors

When a job does not succeed, you can access error details to do some basic troubleshooting.

Figure 25: View Errors

23-errorHistory-21.2

The View Errors button (top-left) opens the Job Errors dialog in a separate modal window. From here, a table of job errors is displayed. Several interactions are available from this table:

  • To copy an error message, click the Copy button at the right-hand side of the relevant table row.
  • To view the job error and error code in text box format, hover over the message line of the relevant table row.
  • To resize the Job Errors window, use the size control button at the upper-right corner of the window.

Figure 26: Job Errors Dialog

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Click the View option from the menu button in the Job Details panel to display the task error.

Figure 27: Task Error Tab

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Further information that may help with diagnosing the error can be found in the Variables and Details tabs.

Select the Variables tab to display the incoming and outgoing variables. Use the toggle switch to render the variables as a JSON, with highlighted arrays and objects.

Figure 28: Task Variables Tab

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Click the Details tab to display basic information pertaining to the task error, including the task name, task ID, and a unique iteration ID to which the task is assigned.

Figure 29: Task Details Tab

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