Tasks are TrueSight Capacity Optimization activities that can be run manually or scheduled for automatic execution.
All tasks are grouped in two macro categories, System tasks and ETL tasks. You can access these tasks by navigating to Administration > ETL & SYSTEM TASKS. In the main page for each category, tasks are summarized in a table that shows the status of all the tasks in that category.
The following sections in this topic describe interface functions common to the System tasks and ETL tasks pages:
The main component of the System tasks and ETL tasks pages is the task status summary table, which lists all configured tasks and their execution results.
You can filter the list of tasks by Task group and Deploy status.
Tip
In TrueSight Capacity Optimization, a task can be configured to be executed in the Test or in the Production environment. When a task is created and a Run configuration has been assigned to it, the task will appear in all of the environments for which a Run configuration exists.
For each task, the summary table shows the following details:
Column | Description |
---|---|
Id | A unique identification number |
Name | The unique name defined for the task |
Type | The task's category (for more information, see Maintaining System tasks and Maintaining ETL tasks) |
Status | The current status of the task, which can be one of the following:
|
Last exit | The result of the latest execution of the task, which can be one of the following:
|
Scheduled | Indicates whether the task has already been scheduled for automatic execution, either no or the scheduled execution time |
Last exec time | The date and time of the latest execution of the task |
Next exec time | The date and time of the next execution (if scheduled) |
Active run configuration | The run configuration associated with the task |
Scheduler name | The name of the scheduler that manages the task |
To improve the effectiveness of the summary and to easily spot issues, the task's Last exit determines the color of the task row:
To see or edit task details, click the name of a task. You can edit the task properties and configuration and perform task-specific actions as described under The task detail page.
To see a log of a task's activities, click the Task execution logs.
icon corresponding to the task; for details, seeTo add a task, click Add; for descriptions of the available task types, see Maintaining System tasks and Maintaining ETL tasks.
To closely inspect the execution of a specific task by viewing its log, click
corresponding to the task.Task log page
Each log is composed of one or more rows that detail that task execution; for each row, the following is displayed:
Under the list of messages, you can navigate through the log, clicking the forward and backward arrows, and you can configure the Page Size.
To update the log messages for a task that is running, click Refresh.
The log page automatically highlights table rows using different colors to easily spot errors and warnings.
Note
ETL tasks can be configured to log their execution at different levels of detail.
To view the details of a task, click the task name in the main summary table (or click Task details on the task log page). A similar page is displayed for system tasks and ETL tasks. The only difference is that a link for Lookup tables is displayed on an ETL task detail page.
You can use the options available in the yellow command bar at the top of the task detail page to execute commands; for a detailed description of the available actions, see Task management.
This section discusses how you can manage system and ETL tasks.
To edit the properties of a task, click its name in the task summary table. The task detail page is displayed. Click one of the following to edit the task:
After you create a task or modify its scheduling, you must manually reschedule it.
Notes
You can edit the run configuration of an ETL even if it is running or is scheduled to run.
You can edit the following properties for any type of task on the Edit task page:
Task property | Description |
---|---|
Name | A unique name for the task Tip Because you can configure more than one ETL task based on the same ETL module, define a unique name for each ETL task. For example, you can name one ETL task London VMware vCenter Servers and another Paris VMware vCenter Servers, with both based on the VMware Extractor Service ETL module. |
Description | A description of the task |
Frequency | The type of frequency to schedule task execution (Predefined or Custom).
|
Task group | (For ETL and service ETL tasks only) The task group to which the task is assigned. You can assign tasks to groups and restrict user access according to task group for security reasons. |
Running on scheduler | The scheduler to which the task is assigned. There are two options: Generic Scheduler and Primary Scheduler. |
A task is defined by properties that define the parameters of the task's execution. All properties defined for a task and their corresponding values are displayed on a run configuration tab for a task. Basic properties are displayed by default; to edit a task's optional properties, click Advanced at the bottom of the tab. To hide advanced properties, click Basic.
Note
For information about what is displayed on a run configuration tab for a task chain, see Task chains.
To create, add or delete custom task properties, or to manually edit their values, click the You can manually edit ETL properties from this page link at the bottom of the Run configuration tab.
Note
You create, add, or delete custom task properties, and manually edit their values, when you create custom tasks with properties unavailable on the Run configuration tab. BMC recommends that only BMC TrueSight Capacity Optimization administrators with a deep understanding of the system create, add, delete, or edit custom task properties.
Adding, editing, and deleting custom properties
Tips
Task chains execute a list of other tasks, in parallel or serial order, according to properties that you define. A task of the type ChainController is a task chain, and task chains can be defined for both ETL tasks and System tasks.
When you click Edit this run configuration
in the Run configurations table, you can modify the following task chain properties:Basic options | |
---|---|
Run Configuration | |
Name | A unique name for the task chain |
Deploy status | Select if the task should be executed in the Test or Production environment. |
Description | A description of the task |
Tasks sequence | Select tasks from Available tasks and click >> to add them to Tasks included in chain. You can reorder the tasks. |
Advanced options | |
Run Configuration | |
Parallelism | Type the number of tasks that can be executed simultaneously. This can be set per process or available cores. |
Continue on error | Select if you want to ETL task to continue or stop execution when an error is encountered. |
Scheduling options | |
Hour mask (leave empty for no mask) | Select the time of the day when the task is scheduled to run. |
Day of week mask (leave empty for no mask) | Select the days of the week to schedule the task. |
Day of month mask (leave empty for no mask) | Select the days of the month to schedule the task. |
Apply mask validation | Select if you want to mask the validation or not. |
Execute after time | Specify the time period after which the scheduler task must be executed. |
Enqueueable | Select if you want the task to be enqueued if other tasks are being executed. |
Click Save to add the task chain to Run configurations and it will be set to Active.
You can run this configuration using . The task executions are displayed in Run History with Date, Last exit state, number of warnings, number of errors, number of failures, and run time details.
You can delete a task chain using Delete button.
Two unique task chains are the Daily activity and Maintenance activity system tasks. Daily activity regulates the execution of the daily import activities, while Maintenance activity controls the tasks that perform regular filesystem and data warehouse cleaning.
Note
The Daily activity task chain regulates the execution of all tasks and task chains that are run every night. Therefore, plan carefully any change to this chain.