Managing Scheduled Tasks

An organization can create scheduled tasks that execute pre-defined Process Flows at a specified date and time. An organization might use scheduled tasks to run lengthy processes after business hours when users are less likely to be impacted or to execute the same processes on a regular schedule without the need for manual intervention.

Users and/or administrators can set up and manage scheduled tasks using Aptify without having to interface directly with the server. The user can specify which tasks to run, the frequency with which the task should run, and the day and time the task should begin and end.

Scheduled tasks are managed using the following procedures:

• Before You Use Application Servers to Schedule Tasks
• Using Scheduled Tasks in Aptify
• Granting Access Rights for Scheduled Tasks
• Creating a Scheduled Task
• Editing a Scheduled Task
• Creating Scheduled Task Categories

Before You Use Application Servers to Schedule Tasks

Review the following important information before using the Application Server to run Process Flows:

• If you plan to schedule tasks locally (i.e., from a client machine, not the Application Servers), Aptify recommends standardizing the directory in which the Aptify client is installed to ensure that locally scheduled tasks execute as expected. If there are different installation paths for the Aptify client in an organization, this can be a problem because the path to the process flow run creation may not be correct. To further limit the effects of an incorrect path, another recommendation is to use the Remote Scheduler as the scheduler agent when scheduling tasks. See Creating a Scheduled Task for more information about creating scheduled tasks with this option.
• You must use a Trusted Aptify user account with the Aptify Asynchronous Processor. Only Trusted users (that is, users who are validated based on Windows integrated security) can use the Application Server functionality.
  • The user does not need to be logged into the computer in order for the Aptify Asynchronous Processor to execute Process Flows.
  • The user needs the necessary permissions on the computer to create Windows Scheduled Tasks. See Granting Access Rights for Scheduled Tasks for details.
  • The user you specify must be assigned a valid user license in Aptify. The user must also have permissions in Aptify to perform any of the actions that may be assigned to the application server (such as creating or editing records of a particular entity).
  • If you change the user account's Windows password at any time, you must also configure the Aptify Asynchronous Processor service with the updated password. If not, the next time you restart the Application Server, the service will not run. See Changing the Aptify Asynchronous Processor User for more information on the Aptify Asynchronous Processor's user account. 
• You cannot use the untrusted sa user with an Application Server.
• The Aptify Asynchronous Processor user must have the necessary privileges required to execute Process Flows. If the account does not have the appropriate permissions, the Process Flow execution will fail.
• Application Servers execute asynchronous process flows using the Process Pipeline functionality. For information on how to create Process Pipelines, see How to Create a Process Pipeline.

Granting Access Rights for Scheduled Tasks

In order to create or edit a Scheduled Task record that generates a Windows Scheduled Task, an Aptify user must be a trusted user using Windows Integrated Security and a member of one of the following Windows groups on the specified Application Server:

• Administrators
• Backup Operators
• Server Operators

Note that if a user needs to create a Scheduled Task but you do not want to add the user to one of these Windows group, use the Remote Scheduler service to automate the creation of the Windows Scheduled Task. See About the Remote Scheduler Service.

Follow these steps to add a trusted user to one of the Windows groups listed above:

Contact your system administrator if you need assistance managing an Application Server's Windows Groups. 

1. On the Application Server, open the Computer Management window by clicking Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management. 
2. Within the Computer Management tree, click the plus (+) sign to expand the Local Users and Groups heading.
3. Click the Groups folder.
   
   
4. Double-click Administrators, Backup Operators, or Server Operators to open the specified group's properties.
   • Not all groups may be available on your Application Server. 
5. The group's properties screen displays the list of users that are members of the group. Click Add to add another domain user to the group.
6. Click once to highlight the user that you want to add from the list of available users.
7. Click Add.
8. Click OK to add the user.
9. Close the Computer Management window.

Editing a Scheduled Task

To edit a Scheduled Task, open an existing record and modify one or more parameters. For example, after creating a Weekly task, you can return at a later date and change it to a Monthly task.

Note that a user must have appropriate permissions to edit a Scheduled Task (unless the Service is set for Remote Scheduler). See Granting Access Rights for Scheduled Tasks for details.

For view scheduling, the system automatically changes the Scheduled Tasks record back to Remote Scheduler if a user modifies a view's schedule.

After saving a Scheduled Task, you cannot change the Application Server. To change the Application Server that runs a particular task, disable the original Scheduled Tasks record and create a new one that uses the new Application Sever.

Creating Scheduled Task Categories

Scheduled Task Categories are used to classify scheduled tasks into specific groups which share similar business functionality.

Follow these steps to create a new category:

1. Open a new record from the Scheduled Task Categories service.
2. Enter a name and description for the category.
3. If this category is a sub-category, enter the name of the parent category in the Parent field.
   
   
4. Save the Scheduled Task Categories record.