A common inquiry we receive via the help desk is how to know about issues or failures with Report Runner Batch.
Issues and Failures Like:
- failed batches
- scheduled batches that didn't start
- batches that didn't finish
- start and end times of batches
There is no one answer. We have multiple ways for you to monitor and be alerted of issues. We will list them out from quickest and easiest to more complex (not an exact order based on that, but close):
- In the Global Options, Settings, Mail tab, at the bottom of that window is a field to enter your email address to be notified of catastrophic issues. For example, a scheduled batch that can't start, because the XML is missing.
- For any batch, you can add the End of Batch Notification report. It can notify you every time a batch runs or only when there's errors. Note, it can only notify you if the batch starts at all (that's why #1 above is important). See this KB article for more information on this report.
- We have system scheduling reports which can show you what's supposed to be running, based on what's in the Windows Task Scheduler. See this KB article for more information on these reports.
- In the Scheduler interface in Report Runner Batch, in the bottom blue button area, there are options to generate visual calendars. These calendars look up the scheduling ID, query the Windows Task Scheduler for next run times, and builds the calendar. This shows you visually when a schedule should run. You can also run a quick scheduling report by clicking on Task Scheduler button and running the last menu option of "Task Scheduler Overview". This will give you a quick list of all tasks and their next 5 run times.
- The Batch log file directory logs all batches that runs. Within that directory is also a monthly XREF file which logs the batch start time, the XML file name, and the log that goes with it. The XREF only logs scheduled or triggered batches. It does not log a batch when you run it manually from Report Runner Batch.
- The optional, and free, Report Runner Monitor and Debugger application has a number of tools to analyze Report Runner Batch. The initial interface shows you what Report Runner tasks are currently running on a given machine. It has a scheduler tab which shows you scheduled tasks with next runs. It also has a green box to show you tasks in good standing and a red box which shows tasks you may want to review for issues. There is also a Batch analysis tab to list all logs for a given month, and an option to filter for only failures. There are options to analyze Event Server and Viewer logs, too.
- Lastly, we have an optional, and free, add-on called Global Monitoring. It requires a SQL Server database that you host. Once configured, it will log everything that runs in Report Runner on any machine, within your organization. There is a live monitor to literally see anything Report Runner related that is running at any given time. There are also reports you can run to see the history of various batches and reports. An additional benefit that can be utilized once Global Monitoring is configured is you can create your own pro-active alerts. If you have a critical batch that should start every Friday at 10pm, you can write a report to check the Global Monitoring database every Friday at 10:05pm to make sure it started. See this KB article from more information on configuring Global Monitoring.
- One more bonus tip, which is a little bit of thinking outside-the-box. With Report Runner Batch, you can configure pre-batch and post-batch SQL queries to run. For you critical batches, you could create your own logging of critical batches (much like Global Monitoring) and just do an insert when a critical batch starts... then write a report to make sure that tasks starts.
---
Additional Information
See this KB article for determining why a scheduled batch failed:
https://help.reportrunner.com/knowledgebase/article/scheduled-reports-wont-run-whats-the-problem
