Calendars, Schedules, Tasks, and Triggers › Schedules › Schedule Process and Operator Tasks

Schedule Process and Operator Tasks

You can configure a process or operator to run as a single task or a series of tasks in a schedule. The difference between specifying an operator as a task in a schedule and specifying an operator in a process is that the scheduled operator starts at a scheduled time rather than as a step in a process. You can also schedule any process to start by using a Start Process operator in a schedule.

Follow these steps:

1. In the Library, double-click a Schedule object.
2. In the Schedule Editor, identify the processes and operators you want to schedule.
3. Expand the Processes or Operators pane and drag any available process or operator to the Schedule Items list. You can also right-click a process or operator and choose Add.
4. For each item, complete the following fields:

   Start Time

   The starting time for a task to begin running on scheduled days.

   Repeat Interval (minutes)

   Indicates whether a task runs repeatedly between the start and end times, and if so, how frequently. For example, every 2 minutes, or every 120 minutes (2 hours). Each time the task is repeated, a new instance of the task is created. Specify the number of minutes from one start to the next in the adjacent (minutes) field. For example, the value 120 in the minutes box repeats a task every two hours.

   Make sure that the End Time is later than the last time that you want the task to repeat. For example, you configure a task as follows:

   • Start Time is 00:00
   • Repeat Interval check box is selected
   • The (minutes) field is set to 120 minutes
   • End Time is 16:00

   These settings schedule the process or operator to start for the first time at 12:00 a.m., repeat every two hours, and run for the last time before 4:00 p.m.

   End Time

   For a repeating task, the time that the task stops repeating on any scheduled day.

5. At this point, you have scheduled a task to repeat at the specified interval every day from the specified start time to the specified end time. Continue with the remaining steps only if you need to make detailed changes to schedule dates or properties.
6. Expand an item group or click Properties.

   The General and Specific tabs appear.

7. On the General tab:
   1. Expand Calendar Settings and select from the following fields:
      • Only Manually Selected: Only consider manually scheduled dates. When no Calendar is specified in a scheduled item, the item is considered to be scheduled every day, except when this option is selected. When this option is selected, run dates need to be explicitly scheduled under Manually Included or Manually Excluded or both.
      • Include Calendar: A Calendar object that schedules dates to run the task.
      • Exclude Calendar: A vacation Calendar object that specifies closed days on which tasks are not run. The full path of the Calendar used to specify closed days (those on which a task may not be scheduled). There are no closed days when no vacation Calendar is specified here.
      • Days per shift: Activates rules that shift the dates that tasks are run when a date specified by the Calendar object falls on a closed date. The number of days to shift a scheduled date when the scheduled date falls on a closed date. The shift can be negative or zero. When this value is negative the date shifts forward. When this value is zero, closed dates are simply skipped without rescheduling the task.
      • No excluded days: Select this check box to only count open days when shifting the a scheduled date to avoid a closed date.
      • Maximum Shifts: When a task is rescheduled because the original scheduled date falls on a closed day, it is possible that the new date also falls on a closed date. This parameter defines the maximum number of shifts that are allowed.This situation does not occur when the No Excluded Days check box is selected.
   2. Expand Manually Included Dates to list individual dates for inclusion in the schedule.
   3. Expand Manually Excluded Dates to list individual dates to exclude, even to exclude dates from previously specified include calendars.
   4. Expand Task Name to enter a more meaningful name for the task.
8. Click the Specific tab and expand the groups of fields that vary by operator or process. For a process, the Start Process and Execution Settings groups appear. For an operator, Execution Settings and other parameters appear. Configure the fields.
9. To set the valid date range for the entire schedule, click Validity. Specify a date far in the future such as 12/31/2050 to continue evaluating dates indefinitely or until the schedule is manually deactivated.
10. To delete a task, click X along the right edge.
11. Click Activate to initiate your scheduled items.
12. Click Check In and then close the Schedule dialog.
13. Monitor scheduled items on the Operations tab.