Managing ETL and System tasks
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:
Column | Description |
|---|---|
Id | A unique identification number |
Name | The unique name defined for the task |
Type | The type of the task. For more information, see Maintaining-System-tasks and Maintaining-ETL-tasks. |
Status | The current status of the task can be one of the following:
|
Last exit | The result of the latest execution of the task can be one of the following:
The color code used in this column helps to improve the effectiveness of the summary and to identify issues easily. |
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 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 the 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 by clicking the forward and backward arrows, and 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 identify errors and warnings easily.
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 is determined by the task type. - You can manually edit ETL properties from this page link at the bottom of the Run configurationtab (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:
Task property | Description |
|---|---|
Name | A unique name for the task. Tip: Since you can configure multiple ETL/system tasks using the same ETL module or system task type, it's important to assign a unique and descriptive name to each task. For example, if you're using the VMware Extractor Service module for different locations, you can name one task London VMware vCenter Servers and another Paris VMware vCenter Servers. Using clear or purpose-based naming helps improve task identification, monitoring, and troubleshooting, especially in large-scale environments where multiple ETL tasks are in use. |
Description | A description of the task. |
| Maximum execution time before warning | Set the maximum execution time before warning in the specified format (minutes, hours, and days). |
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 the task group for security reasons. |
Running on scheduler | The scheduler to which the task is assigned. |
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 the run configuration tab for a task.
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
- Enter a new value for each property that you are modifying.
If the value requires more space:- Click ....
- In the Editing property window, enter a value for the property.
- Click Save.
- Click Save.
To remove a property, click Delete 
corresponding to the property you are removing.
To create or add a property
- In the Add new property field at the bottom of the page, type the name of the new property.
- Click Add.
- Locate the new property in the list of properties, and then type a value.
- Click Save.
To copy a task's properties
- To view a textual representation of all the task properties, click Export.
- Copy the text.
Task chains
Task chains run 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 
.
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 | Enter 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 whether you want to mask the validation. |
Execute after time | Specify the time period after which the scheduler task must be executed. |
Enqueueable | Select whether 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. To delete a task chain, click 
.