Monitoring, Troubleshooting, and Checking Results of Jobs

Owned by Jennifer Koerber (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 10, 2019 by Corinna Baksik

Monitoring Jobs

Viewing Running Jobs

To see all currently running jobs, go to Admin >> Manage Jobs and Sets >> Monitor Jobs. There are three tabs: Scheduled, Running, and History.

The Scheduled tab lists all of the jobs with periodic schedules. (In the Sandbox, these are turned off, but they are active in Production.) You’ll note you can also run some of these jobs as needed using the row action item list.

The Running tab lists all currently-running jobs, and the list is not "live" - it will only refresh if you refresh the page. Very small jobs may only appear on this tab for a moment, but very large jobs may be here for a while. Also, if a small job gets stuck in line behind other jobs, it will remain on this list until it’s completed. If you don’t see your job on the History tab, check the Running tab.

For each job in the list, in addition to a progress bar, you’ll see a status:

  • Queued – The job will run only after a blocking job completes. For example, only one electronic activation job can run at a time.
  • Pending – The job is waiting for system resources to run.
  • Initializing – This is relevant for multi-part jobs only.
  • Running – The job is running.
  • Aborting – Alma is stopping the job.
  • Finalizing – The actions that result from the job running are being carried out — for example, processed files are being sent to their recipient.

At the right is the row action item list icon (...), where you can Abort your job if you realize you need to change something, it isn't running properly, or any other reason.

Viewing Completed Jobs

On the Monitor jobs screen, we can see a list of completed jobs on the History tab.

You can view jobs in a specific time period, according to filter parameters, and/or by search results. The history of a job is available for up to one year after it is completed. If you do not see the job in the History tab list, check the Running jobs tab to determine whether the job is still running.

If you want to view the history of a scheduled job, select Job History in the row actions list for that job in the Scheduled tab, and you’ll see every time that scheduled job has run.

To filter the list of jobs on the page:

  • Use Submit Date to enter a date range for the completed jobs. By default, this filter is set to the past day.
  • Use Job Category to filter jobs by category.
  • Use Status to filter jobs by status. All Unsuccessful matches all statuses except Completed Successfully.
  • Use the secondary search to find a specific job or jobs by name, description, or job ID.
    • Selecting Name searches the Name column, which can be seen on the page. Selecting Job details searches the Description column, which cannot be seen on the page. When you run the job, add a description that will help you find it later.

From here, you can see the status of the job and access a more complete report about the job. Let’s look at those, and also how to troubleshoot common issues.

Job Reports and Troubleshooting Error Messages

There are several possible statuses in the job status column:

  • Aborted by System – Canceled by the system.
  • Aborted by User – Canceled by the user.
  • Completed successfully – The job was processed successfully.
  • Completed with errors – The job was not processed completely due to a technical problem. The job may have been partially processed. If the number of errors is below a certain threshold (which is different for each job), the job ends as Completed with warnings.
  • Completed with no bulks – The job completed successfully; however, no relevant records were found.
  • Completed with Warnings – The job completed successfully, but produced warnings. If the number of errors is above a certain threshold (which is different for each job), the job ends as Completed with errors.
  • Failed – The job failed to run.

The first three are self-explanatory, so let’s look at the rest.

You can get to the job report either by clicking on Report under the row action item icon, or by clicking on the status icon and then on View Report Details.

Summary: The summary area at the top of the job report describes the job title, the process ID, the start and end dates and times and how long it took to run, the final status and when that was updated, the number of records processed and the number that were processed with exceptions.

Counters: These are details that usually count how many records were changed in which ways by the job. 

For some jobs, there will be a link to download a more detailed report to Excel, containing information about each record and the changes made to it or what errors came up for that record. For others, the number next to each counter may be a blue link to more information.

Other Sections: More complex jobs may have several more sections to review the outcome of the job. The first few times you run a new job, review the Report screen to see what information about the job is available here.

Errors, Warnings, and Fails

If your job Completed with errors, Completed with warnings, or Failed to run, it’s important to review what didn’t work and why so you can change your set or your parameters and try again.

Error reporting varies by type of job. Follow the procedure to find your job in Monitor Jobs > History tab.

Click on the more options menu and choose either Reports or Events.

If the job Failed:

  • Clicking on Report will provide a reason for failure
  • Clicking on Events will not provide any information 

If the job Completed with errors:

  • Clicking on Report may provide a summary of how many records succeeded and how many failed, and/or may provide a downloadable .csv file with specific item errors. Sometimes a report table provides further information.
  • Clicking on Events will provide further information about the job processes that took place (this is sort of like a job log).

It is LTS's experience that user-initiated jobs don't Complete with warnings. If your job does, please contact LTS Support immediately so they can help diagnose what's happened.


Checking results

It's best to check a few of the results to make sure your job worked as expected. If you used a logical set, it may not be empty. Check the export you made of the set prior to running the job to find some example records. 


Next Required Reading

Restoring Records Removed or Changed by Jobs