Automate 7.1.3

Windows XP (soon to be upgraded to 7)

Dedicated machines (x2) only running Automate tasks

 

No error messages generated. No specific code to attach as it's not the code that's at fault.

 

We have a number of daily tasks set up on Automate at all times of the day. If any fail to run while we are in the office, it's not too serious. However, if any fail to run overnight (we need to send reports to the other side of the planet overnight while they are in the office - they can't be sent earlier as our data is updating and later would make it a day late), it can be quite serious.

The issue we have is that periodically (it used to be about once a month, it's now more often), a task will simply not trigger - no error messages, nothing. When this happens, all subsequent tasks just sit there too, often having the next trigger date of a date/time that is now passed. We need to restart the PC to get things to work.

We know we can trigger a restart, but that too is failing to happen once this error occurs. Any ideas?

Category Survey

Hi Morris,

What error is occurring? Is there an error message in Windows Event Viewer or in Automate?

Category Survey AutoMate 7 version: Windows version:

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Leonard Amabile | Director, Cross Platform Support
AutoMate | InterMapper | Skybot | Divisions of HelpSystems
T: +1.213.738.1700 | F: +1.213.738.7665

Hi Leonard,

There are no overt error messages anywhere.

At the moment, we think we have found a work-around by getting our two machines to restart eachother - but we'll have to have this running for a while before we can be sure.

There were no errors in the Automate Log. At 19h08:43, a restart task completed, none of the tasks scheduled thereafter ran until we came in the next morning and manually started everything off at 07h58:47 - the PC had restarted correctly, but no triggers were launched.

On the Event Viewer, there's nothing out of the ordinary, the only thing that appears is a run of our Anti-Virus software at about 01h15.

Category Survey

Hi Morris,

Would it be possible for you to provide some information on what types or tasks you are running and the types of triggers that are being used?

Category Survey

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Ricardo Castaneda | Principal Support Analyst
AutoMate | Division of HelpSystems
HelpSystems, LLC | T: +1.213.738.1700

Hi Ricardo,

Most of our schedules are set-up within folders in a preset way. We have 5 tasks, each of which triggers the next. Sometimes one of these tasks may be empty and only exists to keep it in the same format as the others to make editing easier.

The first of the tasks that is always called is a housekeeping task - at the most, this will create folders from a date variable and possibly copy / delete some files. This then triggers a second task to download some data, this triggers a macro task to run any Excel macros, then this triggers an e-mailing task to send the reports then finally a second housekeeping task is run to tidy things up or make second copies of files.

The failures which we are having trouble with are alway running the first step only. None of the steps within the task run or error, it simply fails to run. It's set-up with a timed trigger which works most days. What we find unusual about this error is that with most errors, the next-run time moves on to the next day and we'd have to trigger things manually. With this error, the next-run time remains the time/date when it should have run and nothing advances after it - all subsequent triggers fail to run too. On checking the system time after these incidents, the system date/time is always correct.

So far, the work-around of getting our two machines to restart each-other seems to be working, but this is far from ideal as a restart eats up a fair chunk of time - we allow a two minute warning before the restart and we allow for ten minutes for the restart to complete (although 5 is usually enough, it's best to be safe).

Category Survey

Hi Morris,

What are the logon settings of task?
In Task Administrator --> Right Click on the Task and Select Properties --> Select the Logon Tab

Can you also provide the error that your task does run into?

Category Survey

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Ricardo Castaneda | Principal Support Analyst
AutoMate | Division of HelpSystems
HelpSystems, LLC | T: +1.213.738.1700

Hi Ricardo,

We have the same logon settings for all our overnight schedules -

When workstation is logged on - logged on user

When workstation is logged off - Don't run

When workstation is locked - Run as specified user [Edit - As it works most of the time, the username and password are not an issue]

Our systems are set to lock automatically after 20 minutes, so we used to just run a restart and log-back-on before everything. Now, we instead use the unlock - run as specified user - function - sometimes as well as a restart 10 minutes before.

 

There are no error messages generated - this is the most frustrating part of it, if there were, we may be able to track the problem down. Any other issues we have had, we have been able to track down in this way.

Category Survey

Hi Morris,

Is there anyway to reproduce this behavior during the day?

Have you witnessed AutoMate fail to unlock the machine, if so can you please provide a little more information as to where AutoMate fails?

Category Survey

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Ricardo Castaneda | Principal Support Analyst
AutoMate | Division of HelpSystems
HelpSystems, LLC | T: +1.213.738.1700

Hi Richard,

We have very few tasks scheduled while we are in the office so that we can change things at any time; most tasks are either just before we come in, just after we leave or in the middle of the night for the Far East. If we need to automate things during the day, we usually start them manually rather than with a timer (with a couple of exceptions)

The only times I've seen it happen to a schedule during the day has been following on from an earlier issue during the night.

We are completely unable to replicate the issue. We have even tried to set a schedule during the day to attempt to run a small dummy task every 10-15 minutes to see if we can force it to happen again and there was no sign of the problem.

So far, the two machines resetting eachother seems to be working - we would have expected to encounter this problem at least once, probably twice, since we implemented this - so hopefully that's it sorted. It works, but it's not ideal.

Category Survey

Hi Morris,

Thank you for your post. Another option would be downloading and installing the trial version Automate 9. Automate 7 and 9 can run side by side. You could set up Automate 9 with the tasks you have in Automate 7 to see if there is improvement in the consistancy of the triggering as we have made upgrades and enhancements in Automate 9.

Category Survey

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Liz Casale
Technical Support Representative
(213) 738-6966
Network Automation, Inc.

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AM5 5.5.5.1; AM6 6.2.8.0; AM7 7.1.3.0; AM8 8.0.9.0; AM9 9.0.3.4
BPA7 7.1.3.0; BPA8 8.0.9.0; BPA9 9.0.3.4

Hi Liz,

We are currently looking into the replacement of Automate 7. However, we need to find 3 alternatives (one of which is Automate 9) to present to management before upgrading. While the reliability of Automate 7 will count against Automate 9, the familiarity and the (hopefully) ability to reuse old schedules should balance that out. However, the ability to do something that the older version should have been able to do will not be a strong selling point when we make our suggestions to management.

Also, we like to keep our PCs with Automate as bare as possible to get the maximum performance out of them, we would not be keen to install a new suite without removing the old one.

Note - there is no certainty we will upgrade after presenting the options. At the moment, we have only identified one of the two other candidates.

Category Survey

Hi Morris,

Thank you for your reply. We understand the limitations you may have. We mostly suggest seeing the behavior within Automate 9 as we only fully support our most recent two major releases (8 and 9).

How is the two machines to restart each-other trouble shooting method working?

Category Survey

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Liz Casale
Technical Support Representative
(213) 738-6966
Network Automation, Inc.

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AM5 5.5.5.1; AM6 6.2.8.0; AM7 7.1.3.0; AM8 8.0.9.0; AM9 9.0.3.4
BPA7 7.1.3.0; BPA8 8.0.9.0; BPA9 9.0.3.4

Hi Liz,

We understand only the latest versions are supported. The cross-restarting seems to be working perfectly for now. However, it is of concern as we are intending to run more schedules overnight in the future and it's not ideal to be restarting the machines.

For now, it's working though.

Category Survey