Task Manager

This section describes the SFX Task Manager feature that allows you to schedule maintenance tasks in SFX.

  • Before you can use Task Manager for the first time, you must migrate your existing cron jobs. for more information, see Migrating Existing Cron Jobs to Task Manager.
  • Customers using the Task Manager are recommended to not use the ServerAdmin Utility for setting up or looking at a list of scheduled tasks. It is still possible to use the ServerAdmin Utility, but some features, such as enabling/disabling scheduled tasks, are not supported via the ServerAdmin Utility. Disabled tasks do not appear in the list of scheduled tasks in the ServerAdminUtility.

Working with Task Manager

You access Task Manager from the SFX Admin Center main menu (Setup & Administration > Administration > Task Manager). The List of Scheduled Tasks is displayed:

  • Access to the Task Manager is by default enabled for the default Administrator user only. For more information on user permissions in SFXAdmin, refer to the User Administration section of the SFX Advanced User Guide.
  • If you see jobs without names in the Task Manager, verify that the crontab of the corresponding job does not have a double slash (//) in the command.

task_manager_scheduled_tasks_list.png

List of Scheduled Tasks

The List of Scheduled Tasks displays a list of tasks with information, such as the type of task, the scheduling parameters of the task, and whether it is enabled or disabled. Some additional parameters are displayed in the Parameters column.

The list is sorted by default according to the Type column – descending. You can change the sorting by clicking the column once for descending and a second time for ascending. Sort is possible on all columns except for Actions, Time, and Parameters.

Statistic query tasks cannot be edited, enabled, or disabled from the List of Scheduled Tasks, but can be deleted.

The following tasks can be scheduled with the Task manager:

Supported Tasks
Type Task
STATISTICS Setting up statistics Queries
STATISTICS Handling statistics data > Moving data from Online to Offline tables (online2offline)
STATISTICS Handling statistics data > Archiving Statistics (Offline2file)
CLEAN-UP SFX log files
CLEAN-UP SFX export directory
CLEAN-UP scratch directory
CLEAN-UP SFX request table
CLEAN-UP IP information from statistics data
INDICES RSI index – complete build
INDICES RSI index – incremental build
INDICES A-Z eJournals
INDICES eBook Search – complete build
INDICES eBook Search – incremental build
IMPORT Elsevier Science Direct autoloader
IMPORT Ovid autoloader
IMPORT SpringerJournals autoloader
IMPORT SpringerBooks autoloader
IMPORT Taylor & Francis autoloader
EXPORT Google Scholar export
EXPORT Primo export
EXPORT MarcIt! export
EXPORT CDI Export

Adding Scheduled Tasks

You can add scheduled tasks to the List of Scheduled Tasks.

To add scheduled tasks to the List of Scheduled Tasks:
  1. Click the Add New Task button. The following is displayed:

add_new_task.png

Task Selection
  1. Select the task that you want to schedule from the drop-down list.
  2. Indicate whether you want the scheduled task to be initially enabled or disabled.
  3. Click Next. The next page displays the task parameters for the task you selected, for example:

task_parameters.png

Task Parameters
  1. Select the task parameters and click Finish.

The task is added to the List of Scheduled Tasks.

If you select a statistic query task, new SFXAdmin page is opened, redirecting you to the Statistics Scheduling page. For information on this page, see the Statistic Queries table in the SFX General User’s Guide. After a Statistics task is scheduled, it is displayed in the List of Scheduled Tasks.

Enabling/Disabling Scheduled Tasks

You can enable/disable scheduled tasks from the List of Scheduled Tasks. When a task is enabled, it runs at the scheduled day and time. When a task is disabled, it does not run, but remains on the List of Scheduled Tasks.

There are several methods for enabling/disabling a scheduled task from the List of Scheduled Tasks:

  • Select the link in the Status column of the scheduled task (either Enabled or Disabled). The link changes to indicate the new status.
  • Select the check box of the scheduled tasks that you want to enable/disable and click the Enable or Disable button. The status of the selected scheduled tasks changes to indicate the new status.
  • Click the Enable All or Disable All button to enable/disable all of the scheduled tasks in the list.

Viewing and Editing Scheduled Tasks

You can view and edit scheduled tasks.

To view and edit scheduled tasks:
  1. For a scheduled task, click View or Edit. The following, for example, is displayed when clicking edit:

edit_scheduled_task.png

Editing Scheduled Tasks
  1. Edit the fields and click Submit.

The scheduled task with the new parameters are displayed in the List of Scheduled Tasks.

Viewing Executed Tasks

To view a history of executed tasks, click the Executed Tasks tab. The following, for example, is displayed:

executed_tasks.png

Executed Tasks
Only tasks executed after being scheduled are displayed in the list. If a task is run manually from the ServerAdminUtil (not scheduled), it is not displayed in the list.

The following statuses are displayed:

  • Completed – the task was completed successfully
  • Error – the task was interrupted and could not be completed successfully
  • Completed with errors – a problem or warning occurred, but the task did complete successfully

Click the View Log File link to view the log of the task for more information. Contact the SFX support team if you have questions regarding the error messages.

Calendar of Upcoming Tasks

To view a list of tasks scheduled in your instance for the next 7 days, click the Calendar of Upcoming Tasks button. The following, for example, is displayed:

calendat_upcoming_tasks.png

Calendar of Upcoming Tasks

Additional Recommended Tasks

If you have not scheduled all recommended tasks, the Additional Recommended Tasks button is displayed. To display the Additional Recommended Tasks, click the Additional Recommended Tasks button. The following, for example, is displayed:

additonal_recommended_tasks.png

Additional Recommended Tasks

Unsupported Tasks

Locally created scheduled tasks are not supported by Task Manager. If you have locally created scheduled tasks, the following note is displayed at the bottom of the List of Scheduled Tasks:

Some scheduled tasks have been set up in your instance that are not currently supported by the Task Manager.

Click here to view these locally created scheduled tasks.

For more information, please contact your SFX system administrator.

Click the link to display a list of locally created scheduled tasks, for example:

unsupported_tasks.png

Unsupported Tasks

Centralized Management of Maintenance Tasks

If you have tasks that are managed by the centralized management of maintenance tasks functionality, a lock icon lock_icon.png is displayed for the task instead of a check box. The task is read-only and cannot be edited, deleted, enabled, or disabled. Additionally, the time the task is run is not displayed, since this is configured by the central management and the task is not displayed in the Add New Task drop-down list.

To determine if centralized management of maintenance tasks (or the RSI/A-Z index build for multiple instances) is in use, SFX uses the following settings in the sfxglb41 instance:

configuration file config/central_management.config__ :

Section "centralized_management"

active "1"

EndSection

config/rsi_ebook_setup.config_

Section "index_build"

<instance>

<instance>

EndSection

In the centralized management of maintenance task configuration, it is possible to configure the same task to be run multiple times, for a different set of instances, by renaming the tasks in the all_jobs section. At this time, renamed tasks are not supported in Task Manager. They are not displayed in the List of Scheduled Tasks, but instead are displayed in the Unsupported Tasks list.

Migrating Existing Cron Jobs to Task Manager

Before you can use Task Manager for the first time, you must migrate your existing cron jobs. Before you perform the migration, the following page is displayed:

migration.png

Migrating to Task Manager

To perform the migration, click Start Migration.

If no read-only tasks from Centralized Management of Maintenance task feature are displayed after migration, this may be due to file permission settings in the config/central_management.config__ file.

To fix this, log on as the sfxglb41 instance user and type the following:

cn

chmod 0640 central_management.config__

The following cron jobs are added to the new parameter (--logRun) as part of the migration:

  • admin/kbtools/primo_export.cron
  • admin/kbtools/marc_enhancement.cron
  • admin/kbtools/export.cron
  • admin/kbtools/elsevier_sd_autoloader.cron
  • admin/rsi_tools/rsi_index_builder.cron
  • admin/aztools/az_index_builder.cron
  • admin/aztools/solr_index_builder.cron
  • admin/stats/online2offline.cron
  • admin/stats/offline2file.cron
  • admin/stats/clear_sfx_request.cron
  • admin/aztools/run_az_and_rsi.cron
  • admin/aztools/run_rsi_az_for_all_instances.cron
  • admin/database/clean_tracking/clean_tracking_table.cron
  • admin/database/oai_repository/clear_oai_repository.cron