Restarting Tasks

As a developer and object designer you can Restart active, blocked and ended tasks. Starting and restarting tasks is not the same. This topic describes the differences and provides instructions on how to start tasks.

Differences between Starting and Restarting Tasks

• Restarts use the real date and the logical date of the reference execution.

  • If Calendar conditions are defined in the object, the logical date has an impact on them. Since it is retrieved from the original execution, the task checks the Calendar conditions of the original execution.
  • The real date has the effect that the task reacts as it is executed at the real date. It is also retrieved from the reference execution. It is used for calculating the earliest start time of Workflow tasks. The effect is that restarted Workflows do not have waiting times because of the specified earliest start time, which has already been met when the original execution took place.

• When restarting a task it is not necessary to execute the entire script again. You can specify a position within it from which reprocessing should start. Use the :RESTART statement to set the restart point and avoid repeating already successful processing steps.

• Objects that are processed by an Agent always run on the computer on which the original execution has been started. The relevant information is retrieved from the execution data and, therefore, it is irrelevant if the object has been modified or if Agent Groups are used.

  In the case of Workflows the following applies:

  • If you restart the parent Workflow, the Agents that belong to an Agent Group are retrieved anew.
  • If you restart a child Workflow, the Agents are assumed from the statistics if the option Workflow tasks of the same Agent Group should use the same Agent is activated on the Workflow Attributes Page

  Agents belonging to an Agent Group are retrieved again if the top Workflow is restarted. If you restart a child workflow, the agents are assumed from the statistics if the option Workflow tasks of the same Agent Group should use the same Agent is activated in the workflow Attributes.

Tip: Avoid repeating restarted tasks, as these are difficult to trace.

Restarting a task is possible from

• the Explorer in the Process Assembly perspective
• the Tasks table in the Process Monitoring perspective
• the Last Monitor also in the Process Monitoring perspective. This is available for workflows only.

Configuring and Automating Restarts

To Restart a Task

1. Do one of the following:

   • In the Process Monitoring perspective: Right-click the task and select Restart.
   • In the Process Assembly perspective: Right-click the object and select Execution Options, Restart.

2. The Restart dialog is displayed.
   Define the restart options described below.

3. Click Restart.

4. If the Activate attributes dialog option is activated, a dialog pops up where you can enter specific attribute settings for this run.

   If any of the other test options is activated, a message opens prompting you to confirm that you want to execute the task after the script has been generated.

To Configure a Restart

Configure the following settings in the Restart dialog when you restart a task.

Parameters Section

• Reference RunID

  RunID of the execution that should be repeated. By default this field is populated with the RunID either of the highlighted task or of the original execution.

  If you need the original RunID later on, you can see it on the details of the task.

• Restart Point

  Point in the script from which the process will be restarted. If you leave this field empty, the entire script will be reprocessed.

  Note: Use the :RESTART script statement to define restart points. For more information, see Script Elements for Restarting Tasks.

• Keep Start Type

  The restarted task retains the same start type as the original. For example, if the object is assigned to a group, restarting takes place within the group.

• Wait for Manual Release

  Before being actually executed, tasks go through the following phases: Activation, Generation and Transfer. Activate this checkbox if you want the task to go through them but stop after transferring because you want to control when to execute it.

  See To Release the Task Manually.

• Queue

  You can assign a particular queue for this execution, which can be different to the one in the object's definition. If you leave this field empty, the object queue is used

Test Options Section

• Activate Attributes Dialog

  When you define an object type, you specify the general attributes that will always apply to objects with this type. In some cases, however, it might be necessary to change specific settings for a particular run of an object without modifying its general definitions.

  f you activate this option, before the task is executed a dialog pops up displaying the attributes that can be changed for this particular run. These values apply only to this execution.

• Display in activation report

  If you activate an option in this section, the script is processed overruling the Generate Task at / Activation time or Runtime settings defined for the object in the Attributes Page.

  The activation report includes both the script statements and the content of all involved Include objects. In the case of jobs, also the job includes such as Header and Trailer.

  • Generated JCL

    Displays the JCL in the report.

  • Original Script

    Displays the script in the report.

  • Modifications of Variables

    When testing your object definitions, you may want to modify your variables and check the results before actually executing them. Activate this option if you want those changes to be displayed in the activation report.

  • Modifications of Attributes

    When testing your object definitions, you may want to modify their attributes and check the results before actually executing them. Activate this option if you want those changes to be displayed in the activation report.

To Release the Task Manually

You have two ways of releasing the task manually:

From the Process Assembly perspective

1. Right-click the object and, depending of the type of object, select one of the following:

   • Monitoring, Last Monitor
   • Monitoring, Show in Process Monitoring
2. Expand the Modify... button and select Release manually. Before releasing the task you can modify its parameters. These changes apply to the current execution only.

From the Process Monitoring perspective

1. In the Tasks list, search for the task using either the Filter options (see Filtering Tasks) or the Global Search.
2. Right-click the task and select Release manually.

To Define and Configure a Restart by Script

Use script statements and functions to automate restarts in your scripts. For more information, see Script Elements for Restarting Tasks.

See also:

• Execution Options
• Executing Objects
• Combo Boxes
• Keyboard Shortcuts