|
|
|
|
|
|
Job steps are the individual tasks that comprise the overall job execution plan. Job steps vary in type and function.
When a job is executed the steps are executed in a linear fashion starting with the first enabled step and concluding at the last enabled step.
In the job editor on the designer tab you will see the Steps collection. Right-click the steps collection and select Add New Job Step... which will prompt you for the type of job step to add and the name of the step. Upon creation of the job step the job step editor will appear in the context pane for further customization of the job step.
To edit a job step, select the job step node in the tree view navigation pane to open the job step editor in the context pane.
At the top of the editor is a tool strip with the following buttons and information:
•Test: The test button only appears on job steps uniquely designed to support the functionality. When pressed the job step is executed by itself, independent of other job steps, so that you can quickly assess the performance of the job step. Actual performance of a step may be different at run time than during testing as impellers and previous job steps can affect job execution by parameter overrides and other functional means. If a step emits any output, it will show up in the trace pane at the bottom of the window. NOTE: Clicking Test will execute the job step regardless of whether the job step is enabled for processing or not.
•Macros: Pressing the macros button will provide a list of all of the processing tokens and macro functions that may be used in job steps to dynamically process data at runtime. Tokens and macros are supported in any field which has a yellow background.
•Conceal: Pressing this button will generate macro-safe encrypted and encoded values for sensitive information in macro commands and parameters.
Job steps vary in type but all have the following common attributes which can be modified through the editor and always appear in the job step tab page in the Information area:
•Step Name: The name of the job step. Step names must be unique by job. Step names can be changed at any time and changes will be immediately reflected in the UI but not in job history.
•Step Type: This is a read-only property which tells you the type of step you are working with. It cannot be changed.
•Execution Delay: This option allows you to introduce a pause in job execution before executing the job step. This can be useful in cases where anti-virus or context indexers may still be working with the output from the proceeding job step and holding locks which prevent the target job step from completing work successfully.
•Maximum Retries: This is an option that allows a failed job step to retry work up to a specified number of failed attempts. The default is zero and the maximum is 99. During retry only the job step that has failed is retried. In the event that the retry threshold is exceeded the job fails. If the job step is able to complete work on one of the retry attempts the job will continue processing steps normally.
•Retry Delay: This option allows you to introduce a pause in job execution before executing a job step again after an exception when retries are enabled. This can be useful in cases where transient network conditions or errant file system locks are causing job failures.
•Conditional Expression: This is an optional regular expression value that, if present, can disable the job step and prevent it from executing if a the expression does not result in a match against the output of the Conditional Macro value.
•Conditional Macro: This is an optional macro command that is used by the Conditional Expression to control whether or not the job step will execute. This macro will ONLY be evaluated if the Conditional Expression is not blank.
•Enabled for Processing: By default, a job step is not enabled and must manually be enabled. If a job step is not enabled, it cannot be executed with the other steps in the job. If a job step is enabled, it still will not be executed automatically unless both the job and agent to which it belongs are also enabled.
To conceal sensitive information in macro commands and parameters use the Conceal button to generate macro-safe encrypted and encoded values.
While editing the job step a red exclamation point may appear indicating there is an error with the configuration. Hover over the red exclamation point to find out how to fix the error.
In order to update the job step in the database the entire job must be updated.
In addition to the properties listed above each job step type introduces unique properties into the editor below the button palette of the editor.
During testing or after cloning it may be desirable to enable or disable all of the steps within a job. To do so, right-click the Steps collection within the job node and select either
To remove a job step, select and then right-click the job step node in the tree view navigation pane and choose Delete and it will be removed from the job.
To copy a job step between jobs, drag a job step from one job and drop it on the Job Steps collection on another job. You will be prompted for a new name for the job step which must be unique within the job.
To copy a job step within a job, right-click the job step and choose the Clone option. You will be prompted for a new name for the job step which must be unique within the job.
To move a job step to a new position within a job, drag and drop the job step onto another job step in the same job and it will move into position following the job step on which it is dropped. To move a job step to the first position, move it up to the job steps collection instead of a job step.
To enable or disable all job steps in a job, select and then right-click the job steps node in the tree view navigation pane and from the context menu choose either Disable All Steps or Enable All Steps from the context menu.
Copyright © 2024 pasUNITY, Inc.
Send comments on this topic.
