Scheduling Automatic Tasks

When system operation requires that products be generated regularly, you can schedule a task to run at regular intervals and assign priorities to each task.

  1. Set the task start, stop, and repeat times:

    • Start specifies the first time after midnight that the task runs.

    • Stop specifies the last time after midnight that the task runs.

      If a task should run all day, specify None.

    • Repeat specifies the interval between successive runs.

  2. Adjust the scheduling so that no conflicts occur, that is, so that tasks are not scheduled to run at the same time.

    If, for example, you create new tasks, even well-planned schedules can fall behind, creating scheduling conflicts that must be resolved.

    1. Place the cursor over the task field.
    2. Select Mandatory > Yes if the task must run at the scheduled time without interruption.
    3. Select Mandatory > No if the task can be interrupted.

      If a task is interrupted, the resulting data is complete up to the time of interruption.

    4. When a Mandatory task is running and another task comes up to run, the second task is placed on hold. When this happens, use Skip to help get the system back on schedule:
      • Select Skip > Yes to skip the late task.
      • Select Skip > No to have the scheduled task to run runs as soon as possible after the completion of the current task. In the case of multiple late tasks, IRIS picks the latest to run next, starting with any Mandatory tasks.
  3. When prioritizing tasks, consider:
    • Mandatory tasks always interrupt non-mandatory tasks.
    • Mandatory tasks can never be interrupted.
    • If a Mandatory task is late and the Skip flag is set to No, it runs before non-mandatory tasks.
    • If more than one Mandatory task with the Skip flag is set to No is late, the latest task runs first.

    When the go ASAP command runs a task immediately, the priority of the task is used to resolve conflicts as described above. The Skip flag does not apply because the task runs only once.

  4. If a task runs consistently late, analyze and adjust the overall scheduling.
24-hour Clock Daily Scheduling Example
Schedule Task Start Time Stop Time Repeat
Hourly, on the hour, all day 00:00:00 None 01:00:00
5 minutes after the hour, every 15 minutes, all day 00:05:00 None 00:15:00
Two Identical Tasks with Different IDs and Scheduled at Different Times

First task schedule:

  • Every 2 hours on the half hour from 02:30 to 8:30
  • Hourly for the rest of the day
 1 02:30:00 08:30:00 02:00:00

Second task schedule:

  • Start at 09:30 to start hourly runs after the first task ends at 08:30.
  • Stop at 01:30 because that is the last possible time the task can run before the first task restarts at 2:30.
 2 09:30:00 01:30:00 01:00:00