Managing ETL and System tasks

Tasks are BMC Helix Continuous 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:

Understanding the task summary table

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.

For each task, the summary table shows the following details:

To add a task, click Add. For descriptions of the available task types, see Maintaining System tasks and Maintaining ETL tasks.

Task execution logs

To closely inspect the execution of a specific task by viewing its log, click corresponding to the task. 

Task log page

Each log displays one or more rows that detail that task execution. For each row, the following is displayed:

• Timestamp: When the message was recorded
• Type: The message type
• Message: The content of the log message

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 identify errors and warnings.

Viewing the task details page

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 at the top of the task detail page to run commands.

Editing a task

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:

• Edit: You can modify the general configuration of the task, such as the task name and description, and its scheduling properties.
• Edit this run configuration in the Run configurations table: You can modify the task's Run configuration, which is the task's specific properties, and are determined by the task type.
• The You can manually edit ETL properties from this page link at the bottom of the Run configuration tab (for BMC Helix Continuous Optimization administrators and expert users only): You can add or remove customized configuration properties (for example, when creating custom ETL tasks). For details, see Custom properties.

After you create a task or modify its scheduling, you must manually reschedule it.

You can edit the following properties for any type of task on the Edit task page:

Run configuration

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. To hide advanced properties, click Basic.

Custom properties

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 in the Run configuration tab.

Adding, editing, and deleting custom properties

To change or define a value for an existing task property

1. Enter a new value for each property that you are modifying.
   If the value requires more space:
   1. Click ....
   2. In the Editing property window, enter a value for the property.
   3. Click Save.
2. Click Save.

To remove a property, click Delete corresponding to the property you are removing.

To create or add a property

1. In the Add new property field at the bottom of the page, type the name of the new property.
2. Click Add.
3. Locate the new property in the list of properties, and then type a value.
4. Click Save.

To copy a task's properties

1. To view a textual representation of all the task properties, click Export.
2. Copy the text.

Task chains

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.

To modify the task chain properties, in the Run configurations table, click Edit this run configuration  .

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.

To delete a task chain, click .

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.