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Handling Task Errors (2.4)

This page describes what happens and how to proceed when an error occurs during a recipe, snapshot run, or other task.

When the System Encounters an Error

When the system encounters an error while executing a task (either scheduled or manually run), the system does several things:

  • Sends email to a specified email distribution list (as specified in the task schedule).

  • (In most cases) Generates a workflow task, and assigns the task to the applicable workflow role (as specified in the task schedule).

  • Updates the display within Business Scheduler to indicate the error condition.

  • Updates the display of the associated recipe or snapshot to indicate the error condition.

First Steps

The first step is to claim ownership of the problem and determine its cause, as follows:

  1. Open the Workflow Inbox.

  2. Click Unassigned.

  3. Click the task to display its details. For example:

    details include time created, subject, role, assigned user, and system error message

  4. Click Accept. This assigns the task to you.

  5. Then see Addressing a Task.

Viewing the Workflow Inbox

The Workflow Inbox shows all the workflow tasks. To display it, click the Workflow icon in the application menu. The system then displays a table with the following fields:

  • Create time indicates when the workflow task was generated

  • Role indicates the workflow role that owns this task

  • Assigned To indicates the user to whom the task is currently assigned

  • Subject describes the error

  • Message contains more information about the error

Above the table, there are links for showing different sets of tasks:

  • My Tasks displays tasks assigned to any of the roles that you belong to.

  • Unassigned displays any unassigned tasks.

  • Completed displays all completed tasks.

  • My Completed displays all completed tasks assigned to any of the roles that you belong to.

There is also a search option you can use to search for a task. The text you enter is matched all the fields displayed on the page.

When you click an item in the Workflow Inbox, the system displays details for that workflow item as shown previously.

You have the following options for specifying the owner of the open tasks that you can see:

  • In My Tasks, click the task and then click Relinquish. This unassigns the task so that it has no owner. Then a different person can accept it.

  • In Unassigned, click the task and then click Accept. This assigns the task to you.

Addressing a Task

To address a workflow task, first assign the task to yourself. Read the message to determine what the error is and how you plan to correct it. For example, you may need to do any of the following:

  • Ensure that the file to be loaded has the correct filename pattern and exists in the correct location (in the case of recipes involving a file-based data source).

  • Correct the data being loaded (for example, if a value is out of range is or is the wrong type). This may involve making a correction in a source system.

  • Reimport a schema, if the new data does not match the schema in the system.

  • Adjust a schema (changing data types or required fields, for example).

  • Adjust a step in a recipe.

  • Adjust the query used by a snapshot.

Then, depending on the kind of underlying activity, you may have some or all of the following options within the workflow task:

  • Abort—Halts the task without retrying it.

    Once you have aborted a task, you cannot retry it.

  • Retry—Retries the task. This is suitable if the data has been corrected or if a missing file has been made available. It is not useful if you have made changes to a schema or to a recipe.

  • Retry All with New Version—Retries the task with the new version of the recipe, considering new versions of the failed activity and of any later activities. The system will retry the recipe from the point where it failed, using the updated version of that activity and updated versions of any subsequent activities.

  • Retry Failed Activity with New Version—Retries the task with the new version of the recipe, considering only the new version of one activity in the recipe. The system assumes that the new activity is the one where the failure occurred, and it will retry the recipe from the point where it failed, using the updated version of that one activity. It uses the original version of any other activities in the recipe.

See Also

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